As this series of the podcast is all about celebrating love in all forms, and especially the relationship we have with ourselves, I am so excited to welcome Hayley Atwell to ‘Reign’ because she shared an incredible piece of advice with me earlier in my career which completely changed my relationship with myself and my confidence. So, get ready for more nuggets of wisdom! 

As well as being very wise, Hayley knows a thing or two about starring in a blockbuster movie. Hayley has played Agent Carter in six Marvel films including Captain America and two TV series spin-offs - most notably the namesake series, Agent Carter - and most recently you will have seen her dangling from a train, or driving a Fiat 500 at breakneck speed in Rome alongside Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise. 

As Hayley returns to her first love of theatre, in the Jamie Llyod’s West End production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ opposite Tom Hiddleston, she joins us to talk about how the play raises some serious questions about cancel culture and our society’s gender double standards. 

Hayley also talks about learning to walk into rooms as your autentic self, how she wishes she was more compassionate to her younger self and about the lack of male allies for women in Hollywood and beyond. There are a lot of Heartstopper fans who listen to this podcast so we of course chat about her incredible cameo in the Netflix show as Nick’s (played by Kit Connor - if you missed his episode of the pod, scroll back and listen after this episode) aunt - which makes me cry every time - and she shares the best piece of advice for learning to manage social anxiety that she learnt from THE Tom Cruise. 

This episode is packed full of advice and if you love listening to Hayley as much as I did please get in touch with me across socials @joshsmithhosts as I always love hearing from you. I’ll see you next week for another episode of Reign. Love, Josh x

P.S I am so happy that today’s episode is brought to you with the support of Pandora. Both Pandora and Reign are all about celebrating love in all its forms - be that romantic love, love for our friends and family or the practice of self love. This episode, like every episode of Reign, hopes to give you a loving dose of positivity, and to serve as a reminder that love - whether we give it, receive it or feel it has the power to uplift and heal. That’s why we’re empowering you to BE LOVE through these conversations - get out there and feel love, embody love and pass it on because you never know how much it could change your life or someone else’s. Head to pandora.net to discover the latest jewellery collections and more.

P.P.S. If all this self-love chat has left you wanting to improve your relationships and build new ones check out my self help book, ‘Great Chat: Seven Lessons for Better Conversation, Deeper Connections and Improved Wellbeing’ which is out now! The book gives you so much advice on how to have incredible conversations with everyone, and how you can turn everyday conversations into a self development practice so you can improve your relationships and mental health in the process. You can get your copy here https://geni.us/GreatChat and I really hope you love it!

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