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'Downton Abbey' cast talk season 3, MacLaine's Martha one to watch (VIDEO)
By April MacIntyre Jul 23, 2012, 1:28 GMT
The cast revealed that this season, in a way was a recovery from the war. The season would bring a variety of emotions, including tears and laughter.
What a Saturday night at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, as Monsters and Critics' joined the other TV critics and the cast of "Downton Abbey" for dinner and a chat about season 3.
January 6th brings the family back to PBS, as Masterpiece impressively racked up 16 Emmy noms for “Downton Abbey,” defeating “Upstairs Downstairs” for a record haul in Emmy noms for a non-American series.
The weekend at the Beverly Hilton for Television Critics' Association summer tour was owned by PBS, who brough Kenneth Branagh (Wallander) and Mary Louise Parker (Independent Lens host) to the stage to answer questions about 2012-2013 programming.
But Downton Abbey - in anticipation for season 3 - was the hot date Saturday night, as the cast, including Julian Fellowes, the creator and writer of “Downton Abbey”, and Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary), executive producer Gareth Neame, Shirley MacLaine (Martha Levinson), Elizabeth McGovern (Cora, Lady Grantham), Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham, Robert), Jo Froggatt (Anna, now Mrs. Bates)
Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates) answered questions revealing character and plot for the upcoming season.
The cast revealed that this season, in a way was a recovery from the war. The season would bring a variety of emotions, including tears and laughter.
Mr. Bonneville described his reaction to the Emmy nomination as being "gobsmacked."
"I was overwhelmed is an understatement, to have been in my category, to have been spoken to hear my name in the same breath, so to speak, as Jon Hamm and Damian Lewis and the others. It’s a tremendous honor. It really is. And to have had the show embraced so wholeheartedly by America is very special to us."
Michelle Dockery was quick to praise their composer. "...people like John Lunn, our talented composer who was overlooked last year. It’s wonderful that he’s been recognized this year."
The cast were in scene filming when the news hit of their many nominations. Joanne Froggatt recalled the moment for the TCA audience, "Brendan and I were we’d shot half of a scene and then it was our lunch break. So while the which was when the Emmys were announced. And so I was in the post office on my lunch break and ran back to my dressing room to get changed back into my costume. I looked at my phone and had a text from Michelle saying 'Congratulations'...I was like, what’s going on? So I called Michelle. 'Did we do really well in the nominations?' She’s like, 'You’re nominated and we’re all nominated. We got 16.' And so we were I was just screaming on the phone and jumping up and down with Michelle...I have very red ears in the post nominated scene because I was so flushed and kind of emotional... it will be interesting to see if people spot that scene."
Julian Fellowes spoke at length about why Downton has captured so many people's attention.
Fellowes said, "I think that the decision to make it more like the modern American television series of “West Wing” and “ER” and all those with lots of plots going on, big plots, little plots, funny plots, sad plots, so it’s all sort of plotted up together. Seems to be right for the energy of now. It seems to meet what the audience wants. There is a liberation in it being original, because you can go into areas of the period that a contemporary novel would not have done...there are many subjects that we sort of range among with... I don’t know whether it’s women’s rights or homosexuality or whatever, which you wouldn’t find in a novel written in 1906...And so you have that freedom. But the discipline is to look at those subjects, but within the context of that period. So you must be careful to try and give people reasonable reactions and emotional responses that are right for their own time and not simply someone who’s been parachuted in from 2012. And that’s the other discipline, really. But I think I mean, obviously everyone always says why do you think it’s so popular, and the reason or answer is you haven’t a clue."
Shirley MacLaine's anticipated arrival to “Downton Abbey” - especially to face off with Dame Maggie Smith - will be no miss Television moments.
Moderating the panel was Masterpiece's Rebecca Eaton, who asked her point bank if she was a fan of the series.
"Oh. Actually, no..." says MacLaine, "I walked into my hairdresser in Malibu and they were talking about this. And I don’t know. 'What do they mean? I better go look.' I did. And then soon after that, Rebecca and some other folks in my life called...I ran three months of it and I was just as addicted as everybody else, making me wonder about my attention deficit syndrome. But then, when it was announced I was going to do Martha Levinson, I didn’t know anything about her. I don’t even know if you do. But my hairdresser does. All the ladies in my hairdressing place said, 'Oh, she’s Jewish and she’s from Long Island and she has a lot of money and she’s looking for a titled, old man.'
Ms. MacLaine then shared her story about Dame Maggie Smith. "She told me that we had met 40 years ago backstage at the Oscars next to the catering table. And I was up for something, and there was this big chocolate cake on the catering table. And whatever I was up for, I lost, and somebody else won. And Maggie said, 'You know what you did, dear? You tucked right into that chocolate cake and said, ‘Fuck it. I don’t care if I’m thin ever again.’'
Lady Cora is played beautifully by Elizabeth McGovern, who relished the addition of Ms. MacLaine to the cast.
"It’s interesting that we’re talking about who Martha Levinson (MacLaine) is because I felt that I really didn’t know who Cora was until I met Shirley. And suddenly it all came clear, and I realized that for two years I was in a bit of a fog. But I think that there is a light that mothers hand on to their daughters, which I think Shirley gave Cora in her aura and everything and the story that she tells simply by being on the set, which is one of great strength and humor and resilience and flexibility. It became very clear to me the journey that Cora had undertaken to go from Shirley to the countess of Downton Abbey — or Martha Levinson."
McGovern added, "I think that she’s a kind of icon that has gone out of fashion in the decade of the ’90s ...she’s a more old fashioned idea of women’s strength, which is somebody who is extremely flexible and resilient and can roll with the punches and is strong in a quieter, more self effacing way. And it’s nice to resurrect that idea of female strength, because I think I think that that has churned the wheels of history for many centuries, that quiet, strong woman that just sort of connects all the dots in the family. And that, to me, is Cora, I suppose."
Fellowes gave us more insight into Robert's American bride, Lady Cora. "...Cora’s upbringing was not the same as Robert’s. And during the years of the first years of her marriage, to a certain extent that’s all been suppressed, and she’s had to get on with it and do it the way they do it. But as things start to change and the kind of plates are shifting and we are reminded what Cora’s come from, Cora is less afraid of the future than Robert is. She’s much less afraid of change."
