Hugh Bonneville, I have a question for you.
OK.
Four years after 'Downton Abbey' the series wrapped,
you've now taken on a movie.
How did you feel when you were approached
to do a feature length film?
Well, it was first brought up as we were
still filming the series, and
I thought, you know, what if our audience is
just, you know, a TV audience.
Remember to pray for us.
I’ll put in a word!
And then I saw when we did this sort of teaser trailer thing in
D.C. in a big, big theater about
twelve hundred people and
Allen Leech, who plays Tom Branson, and I, we snuck
in and watched a little bit of it. And to hear the audience really responding
en masse, you know, really belly laughing, and then a pin-drop silence.
I thought, actually, maybe there is an appetite. And as we've seen with the
film beginning to roll out now,
A lot of people have called it sort of
like comfort food but visual comfort food.
Do you have a series that's kind of like that?
Not to an American.
Strangely, it would be 'Breaking Bad.'
I couldn't wait to get home and watch that.
Whoa, whoa, whoa—I don't know what that says about you, but I'm intrigued.
That was a show that I just absolutely adored and I never wanted it to end and
that was a great a great comfort food for me.
If you could play any other character in 'Downton Abbey,' regardless of
gender, age, who would it be and why?
Do you have enough clichés to get you through the visit?
I've often said Mr. Mosley that's the character I admire most because
of what Kevin's brought to the role.
I guess Barrow, ‘cause I think the devil always has the best tunes—
I took a Buzzfeed quiz, actually, and that’s who I got.
Maybe both of us will have to vie for that
part in the gender-bent reversal.
Exactly.
When you guys returned to set,
what was that dynamic like?
Well I'd love to say, No, it took months of
rehearsal, and research, and I had to dig
deep into my sense memory. And actually,
no, it was like putting on a familiar cardigan. In fact, my very first scene
I think it was with Penelope Wilton, Isobel Crawley,
And after the first take, you know, we were—
It was very strange.
It's like summer camp almost.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, summer camp without having to wash up the
stuff in the mornings in the river.
And I don't know if you're aware of this.
This is a really fun fact.
The estate you guys filmed at is now able to be rented on Airbnb
Do you know I just saw this literally on the way here. They must be desperate.
For any potential renters, what's something they have to know about the house.
Put it this way: There are very few en suite rooms in the house,
so take your slippers and dressing gown, because you'll be padding up
and down the corridor looking for the bathroom
Really?
Yeah.
Because it's a proper old castle.
You can't really sort of, 'Oh, we'll knock down that wall and stick in a shower unit, you know.
Yeah, we're going for an open floor plan in the 'Downton Abbey’ house.
Exactly, next year we’re thinking of knocking through that way, you know
If you had to stay with any of your cast mates for a weekend in the house, who would it be?
I would probably opt to spend a weekend
with Allen Leech and Tom Branson, because we have a lot of fun
playing hide and seek.
He's good buddies with Rob James-Collier, who plays Thomas Barrow, and
back in the early days, they'd had a night at the pub, and they got locked
out of the hotel.
And so, Allen climbed the gates of Highclere
and came back and had to sleep in his trailer. So he's used to creeping around the estate at night
Don't think I approve.
Because I don't.
But at least I understand.
Is this the end of 'Downton Abbey' as we
know it, or are we going to have a follow up, or a miniseries?
I don't know. There won't be a miniseries,
I don't think. Just in the last week,
as we've been beginning to talk to you
guys, and then get the reaction to the film, and be together
as a company again,
I think we've all found that there is such
an affection for the show, and for the characters.
And we have for each other without being too soppy about it.
If there is an appetite for more from the
audience, then I think we'd be up for it.
We have, and having these reunions, occassionally— I mean we've had a
couple of dinners since the TV show
finished and we, you know, get togethers, and
Sounds like an.