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"  Photo: Getty Last night, ELLE and Tod&amp;#039;s toasted the premiere of the highly anticipated Sundance and BBC miniseries The Honourable Woman. There, we caught up with its star, Maggie Gyllenhaal, who seemed to be taking a few fashion cues from her new character. In a black-and-white lace Roland Mouret midi dress with an unexpected slit in the back, the actress came across not only as sexy but also as strong. It&amp;#039;s a move her Honourable Woman counterpart would&amp;#039;ve appreciated. In the series\u2014Gyllenhaal&amp;#039;s first time starring in a TV show\u2014she plays Nessa Stein, a woman who inherits her father&amp;#039;s arms-dealing business as well as its promise to help forge peace between Israel and Palestine. It&amp;#039;s a ton of responsibility, but Stein&amp;#039;s a well-equipped female powerhouse, as Gyllenhaal explained. &amp;quot;Stein is very graceful, intelligent, and powerful when dealing with the situation, but what you realize very quickly is that she&amp;#039;s also terrified, confused, and like a little girl,&amp;quot; said Gyllenhaal. &amp;quot;So, she&amp;#039;s a real mixture of both power and a lack of power, like all human beings are.&amp;quot;  Photo: The Sundance Channel And her wardrobe follows suit. At the beginning of the show, Stein is draped in C\u00E9line-inspired power suits and Stella McCartney gowns, but as her weakness begins to emerge, she isn&amp;#039;t so concerned about the designer on her back. &amp;quot;I think she&amp;#039;s trying to play up her sexuality, her power, and her attractiveness like most of us are,&amp;quot; said Gyllenhaal. &amp;quot;But as the show goes on, there&amp;#039;s a real breakdown of that. Her clothes are both an armor and an expression of who she is, and when she really gets in touch with who she actually is, what she&amp;#039;s wearing becomes less important.&amp;quot; Stein&amp;#039;s intricate identity is something that Gyllenhaal hopes to see more of in film and on TV. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sort of tired of seeing just a powerful woman, you know?&amp;quot; explained Gyllenhaal, before clarifying, &amp;quot;I want to see a complicated, real person on screen. I think that&amp;#039;s what really drew me to the role more than anything else.&amp;quot; &amp;#039;The Honourable Woman&amp;#039; premieres on the Sundance Channel on July 31 at 10/9 C Related: Maggie Gyllenhaal on Brooklyn Style and Hair Goals Related: Maggie Gyllenhaal&amp;#039;s Hair Transformation "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/news/a25046/maggie-gyllenhaal-the-honourable-woman/>