Hayley Atwell’s life was made “hell” by bullies when she was younger

She said: “I’d see kids fighting in the playground and say things like, ‘I’m sensing a lot of anger here’. A girl said to me, ‘Your trainers are s**t’ and I’d be empathetic and ask, ‘Is everything OK at home?’

“I still have this one girl’s face in my mind. Sometimes I play in my head what I’d like to say to her. She tried to Facebook me a year ago. I ignored her. ‘Are you kidding me? You made my life hell’.”

The ‘Agent Carter’ star revealed she was dubbed “Fatwell” by bullies at school, but knows that her curvy figure isn’t something she should be ashamed of.

She added: “I know I’ve got curves and big boobs and I’m never, ever going to complain about that. It’s simply that most other actresses are really, stupidly tiny. When I meet some of them, I can’t believe it. Plus I love how expressive my body is. I’ve always been a big believer in what you don’t see being much sexier than what you do.”

However, even in more recent times the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ actress has been the victim of verbal abuse over her figure, as she claims the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein - who stands accused of sexually harassing a number of women over a 30-year period - once branded her a “fat pig” during the 2008 remake of ‘Brideshead Revisited’.

According to The Sun newspaper, he told her: “You look like a fat pig on screen. Stop eating so much.”