Hayley Atwell Shares Hilarious Details of Professor X Return in Doctor Strange 2 (Exclusive)

Filming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was a unique experience for the characters portraying members of Earth-838’s Illuminati. Patrick Stewart recently called his return as Professor X, “frustrating and disappointing.” Hayley Atwell shared a similar sentiment when it came to her character’s fate in the sequence, having finally gotten an opportunity to portray Captain Carter in live-action only for the role to end nearly as quickly as it began. Now, in Phase Zero‘s Spotlight interview episode which releases on all major podcast platforms Friday, the What If..? Season 2 star shared a funny story from the set of those Doctor Strange sequel scenes. 

While several actors in the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Illuminati scene filmed on their own, Atwell shared a set with some others. Among her co-stars was the motorized yellow chair which Stewart’s Xavier would roll into the scene on. “I do remember on the day we had to wait, when Patrick Stewart’s character turns up, there was this kind of gap,” Atwell recalled. “We were creating this sort of moment of suspense and tension within the scene. And all the actors who were there had kind of sustained that, and they’re really concentrating hard. And then when Patrick Stewart’s character comes through, there was this mechanical yellow car that was very slow coming up behind us and go, ‘[buzzing sound].’ We sort of had to wait for it to swivel into position.”

It seems to have become a bit of an unintentionally hilarious challenge to remain in character as the car buzzed across the stage. “So, the hardest thing to do was to keep the focus of this is how high the stakes were,” Atwell said. “We were undermined by this little robotic delayed perfectly comedic timing. There’s something going, ‘[buzzing sound]!’” 

Looking back at the Strange experience, Atwell shared an optimistic lens for the days on set which were filmed while intense pandemic protocols were in place. “I think any film that you do, and I would say this across the board for department, everyone has their idea of what you think the common goal is in this or what the vision is of the piece,” Atwell said. “But then there is the reality of logistics and having to work out how the technical, mechanical way of actually building out this vision relies on things that are not necessarily, that can shift and that can change. And so with us, obviously there was pandemic issues and other location changes, and so much was happening that every film at that time was doing what it could to get made and get done in the best way possible, in the most efficient way possible. “

The full Spotlight episode of Phase Zero featuring Hayley Atwell covers her role as Peggy Carter across the Marvel Cinematic Universe which has, most recently, lead to Season 2 of the animated What If..? series. Atwell addressed the theory of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter having been a family in Captain America: Civil War, offered insights about her upcoming Tomb Raider gig, and more. The episode will be available on all major podcast platforms and the Phase Zero YouTube channel at 9am ET on January 12.