Atwell laughs about S.H.I.E.L.D. pranks

Hayley Atwell and her Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. castmates “prank each other quite a bit”.

The 33-year-old actress spoke on a Comic-Con panel with her co-stars Chloe Bennet, Clark Gregg and James D’Arcy.

And the stars revealed they often play jokes on one another while filming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes.

“We prank each other quite a bit,” Hayley noted.

In fact, her castmate Chloe was unwittingly pranked for several weeks in a row.

Iain De Caestecker pulled a fast one on Chloe that had the entire cast laughing hysterically.

“I was driving around town with ‘Ballz Deep’ as my licence plate for like a month,” Chloe recalled of Iain’s prank on her. “It was my front plate, so I didn’t see it. He got the props department to make it, and it’s a full-on legitimate license plate that says ‘Ballz Deep,’ and I didn’t notice. I still haven’t actually gotten Iain back for that. It’s so good.”

‘Ballz deep’ is a derogatory American slang term that refers to a sexual act.

But things aren’t always comedic on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. set.

Hayley takes her job on the TV programme very seriously, as she is astounded by how her work impacts millions of people.

“One of the most extraordinary things about this whole process is being able to engage with the fans. A lady from the Middle East came up to me and she was crazy. She said, ‘Can you write on the photograph that women can be heroes too?’” Hayley recalled. “I just felt so humbled by that, thinking that this incredible by-product of doing a show that we all love and we all have a great time doing and that’s our job can connect with people on a very human level. It just gave my work more meaning.”