Downton Abbey - Making - Extended Interviews

you Gian had it was always his idea I think after Gosford Park knowing that there was there was a series that you could use inspired by that but he never felt inclined to write it hadn't he just invent couldn't quite see where it was going to go and it was Gareth actually Gareth Neame at carnival who just went to him and said what about it I do like dramas that are about workplaces and about hierarchy and I think that audiences enjoy immersing themselves in a world and understanding how everyone in interrelates hopefully the audience will enjoy all of the trappings that are associated with any period drama but they might always also think it's a contemporary piece what should we call each other well we could always start with mrs. Crawley and Lady Grantham you can't do very much as an actress unless you have the proper words to stay especially something like this which we have tried we have been developed it's like right opening class but it's been it made much easier when you have probably yes me i what i think is so brilliant is that this is not an adaption of anything I think that I think to adapt something to have these wonderful ideas you know original original yes is it stunning yes and to follow these people's journeys through and he's he's equally as at home with all the layers of strata of society and gives them all such rich lives and storyline ah I'm sorry your lordship mr. Bates you may go now we'll stay where you are nobody's going anywhere he manages in a couple of sentences or a tiny shorts in for you to get the measure of the character both as the the act of Doudna and hopefully as the viewer watching is this a public holiday no one's told me off to get the essence of the person within half a page it's extraordinary really raw surreal actually in a funny way that these they're saying these things that came out of your head and they have names that came out of in and in fact it wouldn't exist at all if you hadn't thought I think we'll have a doctor rule dr. Clarkson and suddenly their ears and there's an actor going off his fitting all of that is very bizarre rather rewarding but as I say it's surreal more than anything we have got 16 principal characters who have to be kept in play and at you know that is rather the trick of it really I mean that's that's what they would call the challenge that you do have to do that you have to keep 16 plates on a stick at once you've got from the legendary Maggie Smith down to these you know the appalling Thomas house you know who really should get out on a film set I'm glad you said thank you this I didn't want enough to say that you know see so these really talented youngsters it's great and there's a camaraderie that you get with a theater company which is you know we all like Siobhan Jesus you'll be coming through come through come on yeah shame on you shame on you take three one of them great reasons I did this is actually to work with Maggie God we dislike each other because I am I as a young younger actress only slightly but a bit younger only just a little bit mmm when I was a young woman and started out I the person I admired more than anyone was Maggie Smith so he saw her in everything at the National Theatre and when you are at school no no I was at drama school ever and I've said I wished I could be like that which I never could actually but Oh Penelope so very touched I know but that's the truth so there we go so it's like working with a heroine and one doesn't have many as you grow up oh do so they go I can only say that points I'm very with you in real life I know you do in to hell I'm I'm very humbled by that it was terribly nice okay don't agree Carson I do my bidding just before we started filming Alastair our historical advisor made a very good comment I thought to the actors and I ever heard it and thought this was joy useful was he met with all of the actors playing the SIRT the staff and he said that lot that family that's your soap opera their lives of the family that owned this house and living it that's all that's where you get your gossip from Alastair Bruce is the auricle man I mean I've not asked him a question yet that he hasn't provided the answers during I mean I've even asked him about other questions like love and life in general he's just like he's unbelievable he's a sage you can ask him anything and he will invariably come up with the answers he's taught you how to pour a great cup of tea as well yeah you know Rob comes to my trailer and pause to you to sort of practice Alastair taught me the whole thing about literally dressing the form of collars and what order everything would go on and and how things are laid out and you know so you just get these little master classes all the time depending on what the scene requires well actors are brilliant because they can adopt quite a lot of information and make magic with it my role as the historical advisor is to guide the directors if the subconscious is satisfied that everything is right then I think people will enjoy it more and get the story better she wants a different life the way I should far prefer to be a maid in a large and pleasant house primarily my my job is to set up a look and feel in a style for the most part that's quite an elegance to what we've shot above stairs it's quite we see more of the house it's got its far more reserved it's more elegant and more poised policed very easy to pour easily and so we you know we use quite slowly tracking cameras and quite sort of classical compositions and then belowstairs there's a lot more energy there's a lot more hand-held cameras a lot more cameras that are sort of moving a doubt around along corridors and and a moments which are grabbed and all just capturing glimpses of things and keeping up that energy so we've got sort of two sort of very quite custom whirls that we the collide times Daisy did you hear me call are being on selectively death no mrs. Patmore they might I remind you we are preparing dinner for your future employer and if it goes wrong I'll be telling them why happy to build this as a set you will au couldn't and be if you did you would have used up all your budget on one room so you get all that but what you don't get of course anymore is the attics or the kitchens because they have been changed beyond recognition and so you're always going to end up building those and they were built at Ealing and so we had this routine of kind of a week of dealing in a week here which actually I think worked pretty well unless moving on my mother can I wear what someone out this bear see here we can't really make a mess sure I mean we trash Ealing we're we good yeah but listen sets a fantastic engineering there really a cavernous and labyrinth in the defense yes you really get the atmosphere of the downstairs we've built the kitchen the servants Hall which is in fact the works canteen really for want of a better word and connecting corridors and the butler's pantry which is Carson's office and this is Hugh's office quite a mishmash of what is their working life pride and joy is probably the stove which is actually made of timber so not metal as it looks the where the next big hub of activity is is the servants hall and there are key to this whole room is the bells because once they're in once they're having their food they don't stop work they can be called and all of these actually work we've got a little ping of pulleys around the back for the timber bit of string there we are we dress about three times a day that's usually a dress for the morning and then if we go riding in the afternoon there's a whole outfit change and then dinner in the evening actually there's a lot of envy from density memory going hmm yeah I've got to say because we hope it's the maids we only get two dresses and they're very plain so when we like dress the girls we're just saw that yeah I love that dress yeah that dress at this time because we're covering upstairs downstairs and they are a stock recei they ought to be changing their clothes all the time throughout the day so that's a major challenge in itself what we try and do when we make costumes is trying of elements of original things to try and keep a reality there every single girl on the show has had one episode at least with their corset where the their every organ has just rebelled and they just haven't been able to continue for a little bit and then you do your body does adjust to it did alters the way you move and breathe and speak and it's sort of your whole relationship to your physicality is completely different I took a lot of my reference from Paris because Paris was a huge influence over how the English were looking at that particular time so it was a lovely fluid sort of period very nice and soft and rather gorgeous for girls so I research that small period and then you bring in the personalities of the all the artists involved and all the characters involved and then you try and add the period and the characters together and hopefully you'll just get different personalities with different looks and that's including the downstairs as well when they asked me if I do the job I thought please let me have a really bad bad hairdo and sideburns I've got them and all this stuff that I do is so physical and I just don't understand how anyone did it you know that a young girl cuz I'm Monica I'm carrying all this stuff to do the fires for what five minutes and then they say cook and then I put it all down yeah and my hands have got all these marks on them everything's so heavy have you picked the bone yeah and like the thing that you pour the water out of it's just everything there's 14 times heavier than anything you've ever lifted and that's what happened the limit yeah you do the very good other cuz they put things in and love it smoking yeah looks like proper food most the cast a really good fun unlike a bit of a giggle so that's great and when we're all together as a big gang I'm sure we're driving the crew mad because we don't shut up when they need us to a lot of the time but I like that especially with the staff downstairs obviously I have more to do with them on mass than I do upstairs but we have really good credit together and hopefully that will come across to show that we are a family unit really like like families are people who work together all the time some days are really long you know if you're filming a dining scene which is a couple of pages long and you've got a lot of people there it does take almost all day sort of ten twelve hours to film but you just everyone now is at the point where we all know one another and we're so much more relaxed and so no cuz of that I know it keeps energy off and it's just it's just been the most amazing experience relief it's breathtaking sister a small house for a family of five you know feeling service and they it's incredible I mean the paintings the furniture well I mean I'm not covered up you know it takes us astray coconut going at the Warren what's the budget gone yeah so we have to be very careful but it did as you say it does it's worth it because it lends the air of authenticity you it makes you stand it for music we have done big films before but normally then you know after two or three weeks they go the interesting thing here is we're all trying to get on sufficiently well you're all back every once and then possibly I hope it's really successful for longer so it's everybody trying to get on which you can see which is also quite funny really so it's kind of a a balancing act says it all for lots of them I'm not going to say it

Channel: John Muir

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Id: EVJn5SN-eg4

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2013