{"id":7554,"date":"2025-09-10T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7554\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:20:07","slug":"downton-abbey-star-michelle-dockery-found-fame-an-adjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7554\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Downton Abbey’ star Michelle Dockery found fame ‘an adjustment’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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‘Downton Abbey’ says goodbye with ‘Grand Finale’ movie<\/p>\n

Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern give the Crawley family one last sendoff in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”<\/p>\n

After 15 years, Downton Abbey is closing its doors.<\/p>\n

The British TV phenomenon-turned-cozy film trilogy is drawing the curtains with one last movie, “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale<\/a>” (in theaters Sept. 12<\/a>), which finds Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) grappling with the ripple effects of divorce in 1930s high society.<\/p>\n

The new film concludes the sprawling saga of the Crawley family, chronicled over six seasons of the ITV and PBS series “Downton Abbey.” Created by Julian Fellowes (HBO’s “The Gilded Age<\/a>“), the show was an immediate sensation when it arrived stateside in early 2011, earning 15 Emmy awards and 69 nominations, as well as three Screen Actors Guild trophies for best ensemble, led by the late Maggie Smith<\/a> as the formidable Dowager Countess Violet Crawley.<\/p>\n

King Charles III mourns Maggie Smith: Legendary British actress dies at 89<\/a><\/p>\n

But the drama’s rapid success wasn’t without stress. In its heyday, the series was forced to contend with photographers trespassing on the set, hiding in bushes and trees in hopes of capturing major spoilers. As a result, the production would release misleading photographs and fake leaks<\/a> to throw viewers off the scent of key plot points and cast changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did certainly feel overwhelming,\u201d says Hugh Bonneville, who plays Mary’s father, Lord Grantham. \u201cAnd it also makes me wonder what it is about journalism that wants to spoil something people love before it comes out. The entertaining thing was to see the wrong speculation by supposed journalists, whose main role in life is to destroy something that\u2019s celebrated. That was very strange to experience for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n

At the same time, the cast \u201crallied around each other as the snowball grew of its reception around the world,\u201d Bonneville says. The series found success everywhere from China to South Africa, and \u201cthere was something about the show that touched people wherever they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the humanity of the stories and the fictional world that Julian Fellowes created, where people were trying to get along in whatever way they could,\u201d he says. \u201cSo the press attention, on the whole, didn\u2019t feel intrusive or unkind \u2013 it was actually celebratory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dockery similarly remembers the initial intensity of living under a microscope. The actress recently made headlines after debuting her baby bump<\/a> on the “Downton Abbey” red carpet on Sept. 3 in London, although she coyly says she has “not yet” received any parenting tips from her co-stars.<\/p>\n

Sudden fame “was definitely an adjustment \u2013 that\u2019s the word I always come back to,\u201d Dockery says. \u201cWhen (the show) hit America, a lot of that feeling of not being anonymous, it was different. But we always felt like we were doing it together. We\u2019re such a big family.\u201d<\/p>\n

It made it \u201ceasier,\u201d she adds, being part of a large cast, all of whom were experiencing similar things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe times we’re recognized the most is when we’re all together,\u201d Dockery says. \u201cWhen people see five cast members all having a meal, we can’t really get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Curtis directed two of the three “Downton” movies and is married to cast member Elizabeth McGovern, who has long portrayed Mary’s mother, Cora. He remembers coming to New York with her to promote the series.<\/p>\n

“We went with a group of actors from the show to see Dan Stevens, who was appearing on Broadway (in ‘The Heiress’),” Curtis says. “The play couldn’t start because the audience was so excited to see the ‘Downton’ ensemble in the auditorium. And I thought, ‘This is unusual. This is special.’ “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Downton Abbey’ says goodbye with ‘Grand Finale’ movie Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern give the Crawley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[8834,565,437,458,8836,8833,8840,742,751,146,739,85,46,564,753,8837,8843,8835,8841,397,421,420,426,8839,6673,1943,8838,8443,8842,38,411,6678,424],"class_list":["post-7554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-abbey","tag-affiliate","tag-arts","tag-celebrities","tag-dockery","tag-downton","tag-downton-abbey","tag-drama","tag-drama-films","tag-entertainment","tag-films","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-maggie","tag-maggie-smith","tag-michelle","tag-michelle-dockery","tag-movies","tag-neutral","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-pbs","tag-programs","tag-shows","tag-smith","tag-television","tag-television-shows","tag-top-stories","tag-tv","tag-tv-shows-u0026-programs","tag-u0026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}