Conversations with Allen Leech & Lesley Nicol of DOWNTON ABBEY

[Applause] hey everyone my name is Janel Riley I'm an editor at variety thank you so so thank you that one person no no save it for our guests because this is amazing everyone is obsessed with Downton Abbey sag you guys have given this ensemble three SAG Awards already and I've been told that if it gets it ensemble nomination for the movie they'll make a sequel so so the pressure is it's all up to you guys so please join me in welcoming two of the actors from the film I want to start with the woman who plays the lovable mrs. Patmore she's also people love mrs. Patmore she's also been seen in such series as Beach House in the catch please welcome Leslie Nichol [Music] [Applause] also if you want your ensemble to get a SAG Ensemble nomination cast this guy he's of course been seeing in Bohemian Rhapsody and the imitation game in addition to his work on Downton Abbey please welcome Alan leach hello thank you very much [Applause] are these are those comfy seats in the world that's what your dues are going to no I'm not a man I'm really happy I just want to point out first of all this was the number one movie in the box office at the weekend beating yeah and that's an impressive feat because both Brad Pitt and Sylvester Stallone had new movies this weekend so people love Maggie Smith never take on Maggie Smith I don't care here if you're Sly Stallone or Brad Brad Pitt just don't take on Maggie Smith and also second weekend in a row is the number one movie in your UK I mean I'm not surprised but I am in some strange way but like I mean is it that surprising because you know how much people love these characters there's something weird about this whole thing isn't them know they're always asking I mean we we gradually got to see over the years quite early on really that something big was happening that we hadn't expected and then when you came back from America remember anyway oh my god you won't believe what's happening we went we were the White House and Hillary Clinton was nudging people out of the wait to get two stalkers and this is just kept going on living there and and then so there's some magic weirdy thing going on so now of course would be Brad yeah I would love to think that that was we were all actually going I really hope it as well I think it's lovely that it is the case but even going out and setting on off on the journey of doing the movie one thing that we really wanted to make sure was that we made a movie for the fans and and that was worthy of the show that we had made and it the script took a couple of iterations before we got to what you saw today and I think that was important because you can't make a good movie out of a bad script or one that doesn't quite encompass everything that Downton was this was demanded by the fans wasn't it I mean the only reason this is happening it's the fans never stopped asking they never did and it was like three years and the irony is so whenever we finish the show everyone was like is there gonna be a movie and walking down Ventura Boulevard is there gonna be a movie and hilariously now it's only been out like four days and people are like is there going to be we would have been we would have been devastated I trust no promise you if the fans had seen this and gone yeah like another episode it would have been it would have been gutted yeah I'd actually love to go back to the beginning because I'm not sure I know um when did you first sort of become aware of Downton Abbey the series and how did you go about landing your roles well you're an og og you're an original gangsters and you were like from every episode yeah oh gee oh gee Maggie Maggie Smith is the notorious ma g GI yeah you know me yeah yeah so and I was in a park walking my dogs is how it started and I met lutely as Trubridge yeah yeah and we had a chat a very quick chat about the fact she just got a new job and she's the producer one of the producers and she's a friend and and and the whole conversation was about all fantastic Liz you've got this brilliant new job and it's Julian Fellowes and good for you girl and at the very end of it she went I think there might be a part for you in it then you go well you're all actors right so have we ever heard that before yeah and you go yes thanks Liz yeah I won't hold my breath only because I mean I know she meant it but you know how it is it can go another way so about two months later the call came and then I went and it was just my good luck and this now as you know never ever ever ever happens um I had been up for something of Julianne's a year before and not got it to play opposite Maggie and they wanted somebody of her age so I didn't get it but I was in his mind that's crucial Liz was also batting for me so they they just stood up at a casting meeting and said look we've got an idea for the cooks you just put it on tape and if it you know if it doesn't work out we'll move on no yeah yeah because they had Maggie they had Hugh Bonneville um anyway so they got me in they never saw anybody else yeah now wouldn't it be great if that resolves the case and I mean what did they even tell you about mrs. Patmore did they hit they probably didn't have the whole season plot it out yet no no really I think they sent us maybe a couple of episodes do you think oh no you wasn't he came later and stayed no I mean it was a bit yeah well they sent me I think they sent me a couple of scenes and at the time she was just this with me poor Daisy I know poor Daisy but as time progressed he what he did it for everybody he didn't let anybody stay in one position he just flushed everybody out and made them have lots of facets like we all do nobody's one thing and then it became clear why she was like that but then yes so what he did that's brilliant and what brilliant writers do obviously is they take what you are and they take your to your strengths and Daisy and I Sophie and I are like that and he saw that very quickly and so he developed it that way for us so was this show already a phenomenon by the time you came on no they were they were in their third episode of the first season they were filming that when I came in to audition and I really know that you just mentioned I didn't know you went for that was that the movie called from time to time yeah I was in that so the movie that you didn't get i actually i played i really enough played tim spores great-grandfather as you because it went back in time so i was playing and but yeah so that was how Julian knew me so I kind of came in also with the fact that people I was in his consciousness and the part was actually John Branson a Yorkshire chauffeur so he was local and when I came in Julian went I have an idea and I was upset obviously being an actor I'd worked on my Yorkshire accent for weeks so an you arrive and it's one of those things you're like you tell me now why I literally been walking around annoying people with my Yorkshire accent and I thought okay they want me to keep the Irish accent this might just be a whim and then they'll go no we're gonna cast at Yorkshire so I left the audition actually quite good that I wasn't gonna get it because I was the only person to in New York for a Yorkshire park and then Liz Trubridge again who genuinely is the champ one of the great champions of Downton as a producer she she rang me and said we want you to keep it Irish and being living in the UK again I was like I don't wanna get typecast and I fought to try and plays as a Yorkshire man they went not stop talking we have an idea trust us and in fairness Liz saying trust us is something that I've done with Julianne and the show the whole way through and I'm so glad I did because I think the journey that Tom Branson has had yeah is down to the fact that I just stuck with her and was loyal and and stayed and and and tried to do my very best job and Jillian has written a great character and I'm delighted to say in the movie a lovely story for Tom yeah a lovely story he like foils an assassination attempt and saves a marriage she's before his assassination assassination attempt he becomes dr. Phil to the royal family nice and and he finds love again I was actually going to say James Bond but I like dr. Phil to James Bond for the King dr. Phil for the daughter yeah and then twinkle toes for for his romance which actually again Liz Trubridge beep champion er that sequence were Tom Branson and Lucy dance at the end outside was never scripted and when we were doing the ballroom scene and that scene where he says I wish I could dance with you Liz drew but you had I have an idea I think that we should have them dance separately and we can just put it in the credits as something just to show that tom has his ending in a way that there is hope for him and of course being an actor and and and I was going to the Bohemian Rhapsody premiere in London so I was like I know I don't think we need that let's leave that out because I wanted to get on the train so because because we were in Yorkshire and I didn't want to miss being on the red carpet so she said they actually I stayed till the very end we didn't have time to shoot it Liz was quite good but I said my goodbyes too but what were a lot of the same cast and crew that we had for all six seasons a lot of the crew came back which just shows that the love that everyone had not just as the cast for this show we really were a family so when then I got back to to London and I got a call from the second ad saying no Liz is determined to get this shot we need you back up tomorrow I'm gonna tell them how you learned the dance this is Lydia so I I I said you're joking and he's like no we'll see you tomorrow I was like uh-huh well there goes the after party for Bohemian Rhapsody but I got back in a train and on YouTube I learned to dance on YouTube watching people and genuinely in the aisle on a train for three and a half hours to Yorkshire going one two people thought I was very odd in that carriage on the train but we got back up and it's just a bit like Downton has this magic about it things go right for Downton and it had been raining the rain stopped the moon came up bizarrely and then the Sun was still going down and we got that beautiful sky with 20 minutes to do it the speaker broke so it was being the music that we were density was played on an iPhone as as the guys came through one of the cameramen fell because it was on steps but they did a beautiful job they make it look so beautiful and sweeping and we did in 20 minutes and part of that smile I have is me thinking this is never making the movie I am curious you talked about how you know the fans sort of willed this movie into existence when you went off the air in 2015 did you think then that you were bidding farewell to these characters forever that you really did think that was it I didn't but I I think you can call it being in denial I think that's what is happening to me I just I I didn't think it was the end and that might be just I had no evidence to back this up I just wasn't gonna have any of it I just said it was a bizarre thing but still we did when we say goodbye to it there was it was very emotional I mean the journey we've enjoyed not just as as actors in his show but actors on a show that it worldwide has been taken to people's hearts he's incredibly special and I think even Maggie would have to say that this will be a career-defining moment and mainly she'll say it because she can't walk to her supermarket anymore she said I was fine in my career until I didn't Downton Abbey everybody left me alone furious about yeah genuinely because I think people just always but Downton in a way it's a weird thing when you come into people's home yes they own you a little bit you know and she said it was very she there's a supermarket chain called Waitrose and she goes I can't even go to waitress and I broke the cardinal rule of doing your Maggie impression I'm sorry actually we've a question from Patricia Warren wants to know how did you feel when you realize that you were recognized everywhere you went and was there a moment where it just sort of happened that you suddenly realized everyone knew who you were might not that everyone but certainly when the show was on you're more in people's consciousness so they were there aware of you and I was coming into the states actually for a meeting on something and the guy at passport control the episode is just aired where Branson had left civil in Ireland and had come back to the house and he grabbed my passport he looked at us he looked at me anyway that's a crappy thing you did your wife [Music] and that I couldn't believe that someone a passport I was like what oh and then he was like I don't really wife watches it for years I've never had anyone at immigration ever have a clue what Downton Abbey is I have to say to you that what a beautiful woman and they really they make mrs. Patmore very different from the actual Lesley Nicol I think a very glamorous woman will make up honor that's yeah so you're pretty unrecognizable by the way can you cook I'm curious ah right I'm gonna change my own so for many years I just went No because that was the truth now I've had a bit of a shift in life because I as a result of Downton I've started getting heavily involved in animal welfare and stuff and speaking out for animals because I thank you it's just the way it's gone and and I was taken to a Farm Sanctuary outside of La who are a brilliant organisation in their rescue farmed animals and abused animals and I had a moment I mean I've eaten meat all my life and I had that moment where I was sitting down on the floor with a pig and I suddenly thought I can't stand up in public and speak up for these guys and then go home and eat them that's just stupid so I haven't eaten mean since since that day I'm a I'm a learning vegan I'm not you know I waiver here and there but but he does seem to be the way I want to go so suddenly I've got a situation where my lovely husband is a cook and always cooked my meals and he's not vegan so what are you gonna do I like my food so I've gone to vegan cooking classes very good Studio City was this the gentle barn but you went to was it the gentle barn that you went to where you saw the animals sanctuary it's a day to charity call farms and have a place in watts and Glen in New York and one in Acton that was me in Acton yes so what was it like to step back into this world after like four years off was it like nothing changed or did you feel it had dramatically changed like nothing changed like a trees genuinely that the read-through we were so giddy all the producers like please just sit down just start could we please start because everyone just kept hogging we always did it in this very large square so this obviously the center was empty and then we could see everyone so you could watch every single performance which was real really beautiful and that what I found was that everything for the movie got bigger including the read-through tables because suddenly you were miles away from people because there was suddenly so so many more producers and and other people involved in it and you really got the sense from that very moment that everything we wanted which was to turn up Downton you know we keep using the spinal tap reference everything went to eleven but but we did feel that and that was the first moment I was like oh this is gonna be big and I tell him a Maggie Smith moment yeah Maggie Smith was right at the other end of this huge square and she kind of staggered she made her way round and I'd lost some weight in the indie intervening years and she just looked at me she went where have you gone sorry Maggie that's actually a lovely compliment it was a lovely comment we have a question from Sharonda it's that correct oh hey um wants to know how do you feel Downton Abbey has evolved as it has gone from a television series to the big screen in addition to being bigger I think what's evolved actually in what you Liz done brilliantly is he's created a very contained storyline which in effects every single character because how is it evolved I mean cinematically I think it looks really quite beautiful something that we always try to do as a show we knew we had to up that as well but I think within the story we had to create a world that was completely contained because we didn't have next week we didn't have eight episodes so Julian the Royals arriving mean that it affects not only one member of the household or the family it affects every single person of Downton so as its evolved probably in the epicness of the storytelling but the characters obviously are essentially the same and for fans obviously you need that because you want to see them in this incredibly different environment and the perfect example of that is well the downstairs storyline with everything happening with you guys and the Royals Butler and team but also I think mr. Mosley what Kevin Doyle does is truly truly remarkable and when he did that scene where he does the half curtsy bath which not a lot of people know that he based that on resume the former Prime Minister did you ever see her cuckoo ever see your curtsy is the most awkward thing it looks like a baby giraffe trying to drink water and and I love that only Kevin Doyle saw her went oh I'm having that and and then when he actually did it Maggie came in after a couple of rehearsals and she sat in and she watched it and she just went oh well that's delicious she do Google Teresa maker it's really worth it it means you'll get to laugh as hard as he did about Kevin's performance you do it again at home I will not believe it playing these characters over the course of ten years though I mean does that do you love it does it get challenging have you liked watching them grow and change or in some cases not yes I mean that that's the joy of Julian's writing is that he completely never let anybody stay the same really did he and what he said the other day I'd never heard him say this before he said I really liked it and the great example of this is of course Thomas Barrow who has made a complete Ark of journey and he said I love it when you think you've made it you mind up about somebody and their circumstances change and they show it somebody in different light and you rethink who they are and I think he is a I mean isn't he gorgeous in this film Rob isn't it wonderful what he does and so and he said and that's like life you know you can think you know somebody and then something happens and you rethink who they are he said that to me as well at the end of season six when I said Tom really doesn't get his happy ending does anything you went well no one gets their happy ending all at the same time you know it is true like in life and I loved the fact that it but it is a lot about trust I think the one thing that we all kind of whether it was the show or the movie we all kind of just grabbed each other's arms and we all jumped in together and and trusting Julian and then he's able to produce this as a movie script as well you know it pays off and it's something that I'm so hoping to hell that it would work well of course you know an option the first thing as an actor you're always going straight through going am i alive am i alive am i alive yes but what yeah but even within the story when when Sybil died you know she came down with an awful bout of bad contract negotiations and as Julian says within the within the show like if you're in the family and you want to leave you must die so hence season season three for us was our red wedding we lost Dan and Jess but him but even in that I thought that I was done then because I see and Julian could have taken the easy option which is by Tom you know where do we go with that story and I love the fact that he said it's much more interesting for the family and the household as well if they're now stuck with a guy who Oh is only there if he's a victim of circumstance and he fell in love with the girl she passed away and now he's there and stuck within this world that he actually was so opposed to and what I loved about that moment that Liz Trowbridge created he's he's outside of them metaphorically and actually he he's moved away he's dancing the same dance but he's already moved himself apart yeah it's a lovely I think buttonhole to Branson she's the same thing so Lucy's a victim of circumstance - like she's ladybug Shaw's daughter and it's so they're both about to go into a world but very different from from the family they're both born into what are some of your favorite memories of your time on the show or maybe not even favorite but just most memorable moments there's so many I mean myself and Hugh crept in at the New York premiere we came back in at the end and we watched the last 20 minutes arm and arm just looking at this show that we started 10 years ago and it was pretty spectacular to think that to watch it being enjoyed and I like what's lovely about Downton is it was universally enjoyed on a large scale around the world but there's something very special about watching it as a group and I'm sure you'll agree we watched we happened to us in season six in DC we crept in again to watch people get a preview episode for PBS and we watched people go on that emotional journey together it was the first time that I looked at human this could really work as a movie but but even then we were just kind of joking and there is something very special in so the moments for me have always been the surprise and the pride I've had and being part of something so special and also we've we only by five years record the downton elders me Phyllis and Jim and we've we've watched the youngsters grow up yeah you know little Sophie she's not so little but Sophie with know I've known for ten years as a very crucial part of her life and I've been right next to her and what really we did an interview the other day and she got she got emotional in the middle of it because they said what's it like having these people as mentors and she said well she said we were just lucky because they were kind and I said well everybody was kind actually that is something that this cast is yeah and unsupportive of each other and just as maybe we were kind these youngsters could have become absolute brats with this wouldn't they but they didn't because we said to them don't think this is normal we said it really early on we said you know this is you don't get one of these every year sometimes you don't get one at all so really be there and value it and then none and they were brilliant but but it also cause you were amazing mentors because also for us coming up there was no ego but the ego would have had to start with Maggie or with these incredible actors who've had such amazing careers and there wasn't there was always a sense that we were actually we genuinely were an ensemble we just wanted the scene to work we wanted the show to work and the show was always the first it was never no one put themselves ever ahead of what we were trying to do in creating these characters and this show you're right Maggie so could have pulled rank legitimately is who she is but she never did and the fact is there's no going back to trailers when you came off from doing a scene circular chairs and you just sat there and you talked and I always just was so grateful for the fact that people would impart knowledge and helps he always felt that you at a safety net of these incredible actors so even if you did fail or you took a chance you were doing it in the very best environments you could and Maggie included and she would applaud anyone who if they did something that she really thought oh that's brave you got you got she was like that's brilliant well done and getting that kind of CUDA like acknowledgement from someone and from but I mean that that all the way through anyone could do that and we all did we were all there for each other and and I think that's why the movie happened you know it's very easy that people could have gone away and we all came back was it like that from the beginning or surely you were at least a little bit intimidated by Dame Maggie Smith in the beginning terrified Mike one of my first scenes I have to drive her in that car and they said you know which I love this idea where you drive in a 1910 Renault where the hand brakes on the outside of the car I mean I want to meet the guy who designed that one where when I put the emergency brake put on the outside of the car anyway so I had their course you know but it's a film crew so like analyst you can come in with a good bit of speed and just stop on that mark you're really driving oh yeah yeah yeah and Mikey was in the back and I kind of panicked as I came in and because that the main brakes actually aren't attached to the the wheels they were attached to the gearbox it's a long story which is leather I mean seriously it gets insane and they put no national treasure Maggie Smith in the back and put me at the wheel not a great idea but we came in I panicked and I pulled up the handbrake and I turned the whole car I brisée handbrake turned in 1910 Renault with Maggie in the back completely missing my mark and they went okay we'll try that again back to ones if you just just wouldn't want to reverse a Maggie went I think I'll get out first so I didn't have the best first impression but when I came back in season 3 the first thing as she walked into the door of the house and I just said hi Maggie and she went hello smiler and glad you're back so even that like it was just so lovely but yeah she's lovely I didn't with her at all so don't ask me in one scenes remember where you came upstairs I do I do it was memorable I had one scene where I was this close to her I think she spoke to me though I don't think she ever spoke to me but I was in character yeah actually what I will use happen was when we had those days where it was a wedding or a funeral or a party every woman everybody was there I used to sit and just chat to learn she's phenomenally funny and very naughty if she'd not that she would ever watch this but is she gonna be okay with these imitations she no she'll never know she did call Irene McKellen though yes hardly I'm done Graham Norton and then she and then she saw it she went I hear you're doing me again I'm okay for now yeah and apparently someone told they were together and someone brought it up and she just looked him and said what did you do yeah we have a question from Michelle oh right in front wants to know Alan after being so quote-unquote nice for so long did you feel in each one leash your dark side in projects after Dantan Abbey yes and I was lucky enough to do it kind of with the human Rhapsody obviously hmmm yeah that was a lovely role and something that's very very different from what I'd play and one of the joys of being an actor if you're given an opportunity to do something so different you kind of you jump at the jump at the chance and and yes that was a very special project I feel very lucky to have been cast enough and I have Denis O'Sullivan he was one of the producers he genuinely championed me for that role I didn't actually auditioned for Jim Hutton who was I was Freddie Mercury's actual partner till he passed away and then they said actually and I read the script going up or print or what a role the whole way through and said that that's gonna be brilliant for someone and then they came back and said we want you to play it and I'd never done that where I didn't audition for a role I've never experienced that in my life it was the only time it's happened before and since and there's an immense pressure on you then because you auditioning actually is kind of a nice thing to do because you're like this is what I got is it right or do you want a sir now okay cool but but it gives you an opportunity to try stuff and and to show what you can do or what you've kind of created as a character when people just say we want you you go that's amazing thanks and then you hang up the phone you go oh because you then have to create that Karen and obviously when you're playing someone real which I've done in two movies an imitation game John Karen cross there's a certain responsibility as well and within the storytelling of of a movie about Freddie's life it's you need two protagonists you need the villain and I certainly played that but you also know that he wasn't all bad it was one that you have to try and create around what's written in a script to show that he had some humanity and I think in that final scene with the rain coming down you showed his weakness and had the vulnerability of how it got to him but anyway sorry it was a great it was great did you ever get feedback from anyone on that performance he's family I'm poor printer passed away about six months before Freddie did of an AIDS related illness so III know his family obviously within that movie he was depicted in a certain way and they weren't hugely happy about it sure yes but then a lot of the stuff that did happen in the movie happened in real life so you also have to go back to books and history and then we had Brian May and Roger Taylor there so they were able to tell us as well so I think there was a justification for the role that he had it with in the movie yeah now I know where I know that there is not currently publicly announced a sequel to the Downton Abbey is not privately announced either but were that to happen where would you love to see your characters go or are you more just curious to see what Julian comes up with a boyfriend finally I I think we should go back we've discussed this before on a panel where remember when Carson and Hughes were getting married and they sat down and and she became the sex therapist I think I think the second movie should basically be mrs. Patmore sex therapist I have been banging on about this for years currently and there was mr. Mason for those of you who watched it and he's beautiful is a beautiful actor and a beautiful person and Sophie and I adore him and we don't know where he's gone but he could come back sure I did ask for Antony Hopkins but I was a bit wild I know but I just think there would be potential I mean seriously I just think because I don't think mrs. Patmore was probably even been kissed I think it would be so wonderful it would be tough I think it would just be touching and fun here there's potential thousand that's all but I think that that's the great thing that Julian does when he writes with the show and then the movie is he closes certain doors and he opens so many others and we all say we're not gonna be coy and go over maybe whatever we had such a great time making this and seeing the reaction that has already had we're already on if you want us we'll do it so I think they were looking at the figures obviously well the math of the whole thing yeah um that's quite encouraging so far and so and Julian is not ruling it out so that's quite important you know if he doesn't do it was stuffed that's what you said on the panel the other day is like really what we've got to do is keep Julian Fellowes alive we can do that we've a chance whatever it takes well again I want to congratulate you guys I mean as a fan I want to thank you for for not messing it up and for actually thank you that was our biggest worry as well no no I mean it's a fantastic as a standalone I went with someone who has never seen an episode of the series they loved it it's such a treat for the fans thank you guys so much for being here thank you [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 6,767

Rating: 4.961165 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Q&A, Interview, Allen Leech, Lesley Nicol, Downton Abbey, Movie

Id: zVHBQZJYj_4

Length: 33min 27sec (2007 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 24 2019