Downton Abbey is arguably one of the most beloved television series of all time, a six-season giant beloved by television critics and normal viewers alike. Having accumulated numerous accolades, including Golden Globes, Emmys, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, the series was so successful in its telling of the story of the Crawley family and their staff that it spawned two sequel films — one of the same name in 2019, and this year’s Downton Abbey: A New Era, which introduces a whole new cast of characters into the world audiences know and love.
Simon Curtis is the man behind the camera for the second Downton film, which not only takes beloved characters out of the abbey, but brings new ones in as well, as a Hollywood film crew comes to make a movie on the ground, only for Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) to get roped into the chaos. The film is a blend of the old guard and the new, and is another addition to Curtis’s long and storied career, alongside films like My Week with Marilyn and Woman in Gold.
Ahead of the film’s release on DVD and Blu-ray on July 5, Collider had the opportunity to fly to England and interview Curtis at the stunning Wrest Park, the UK filming location for the French villa inherited by Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess in the film. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above as well as read a transcript of below, Curtis discussed what it was like directing stars he’d worked with before — but never on Downton — as well as taking classic characters out of the abbey and into a new world, and the surprising film that inspired A New Era’s Hollywood plotline.
COLLIDER: First off, lovely to meet you. The film is incredible and that comes from somebody who's only been watching Downton for the last handful of years. But the thing that struck me the most about the film is that it's got a very sort of Singin’ in the Rain vibe, obviously with all of the old Hollywood, and bringing Hollywood into Downton, but particularly with the sort of subplot with Mary and Myrna Dalgleish. Was that film an influence sort of on this one at all? Or were there any other early talkie or silent films that had an influence on it?
SIMON CURTIS: There's a definite answer to that, which is that our producer Gareth Neame's grandfather, Ronald Neame, who was a very famous director in his own right... bear with me on this... when he was a young man was Alfred Hitchcock's assistant on Blackmail, which was the film shot in London in the late '20s that actually went from silent to a talkie. And so that was the influence on Julian [Fellowes], rather than Singin’ in the Rain. So it was Blackmail by Hitchcock.
COLLIDER: Yeah. That's fantastic. And obviously you've worked with Julian Fellowes before, you worked with him and Elizabeth McGovern on The Chaperone, but you've also worked with a number of other cast members from this film. You've worked with them before, but what was it like sort of coming in as a new director to a project that they've essentially been working on for ages?
SIMON CURTIS: Yeah, I can imagine that might be intimidating, but for me it was just a joy because to work with a group of actors who'd been cast as a family, who now really were a family, who owned their characters so deeply because they've been playing them for over a decade, just made it a real pleasure, actually.
COLLIDER: And you were filming in these completely beautiful spaces like this. Is it sort of intimidating to take those characters out of Downton at all? Because for most of the series they've been contained to the one place.
SIMON CURTIS: Yeah, I think it was a relief for everybody to get out of Highclere. It's a very particular house. I mean, very beautiful in some ways, but not easy to film in. And so when we got to France or here, Wrest Park, it was very liberating. Yeah.
COLLIDER: And this film, even more so than the first one or the series, has such a massive ensemble cast because you're bringing in the family at the Villa and then the Hollywood stars. How do you sort of balance making sure, especially all of the quote-unquote "legacy characters", get sort of their due on camera?
SIMON CURTIS: Well, again, the script is a brilliant map for that because Julian is really skillful at giving all his characters satisfying journeys. But my attitude was to treat them all like film stars, and met them all beforehand. And the legacy characters, as you call them, or actors, were thrilled by the new arrivals, and Hugh Dancy and Dominic West and Laura were a joy to add to the ensemble.
Downton Abbey: A New Era, also starring Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, and Elizabeth McGovern, is streaming now on Peacock, and arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on July 5.