DAN STEVENS

MEETING DAN STEVENS

I have been running Dan Stevens' Facebook page for nearly a year and I can honestly say it is a pleasure, he is one of the loveliest celebrities out there, always saying thank you and telling me how he appreciates what I do for him. He has a great sense of humor and is very easy going, it's almost as if I know him personally, which unfortunately I don't.

This whole thing came up quite by accident, after I started following him I noticed he did not have a Facebook, so one day I just Tweeted him that and he just said the most natural thing to him probably, go ahead and feel free to start one!

At first I thought he was joking, so I asked him confirmation and he said, yes sure. I did some research as to what would be involved in doing something like this and found out it was not very hard really, like running your own page, but a lot more fun.

So I started this little adventure and like I said, it has been well worth my time. It is indeed a pleasure to do something like this for someone that cares about his fans as much as Dan does. He has impressed me with that. He thanks people all the time, for watching, he chats with the fans regularly on Twitter, so if you're not in the loop I would suggest you get going, he is wonderful.

I never, in a million years, though that I would be doing something like this for such a person, so I'm enjoying this tremendously. Lately it's quite busy, since they are doing a Press Tour for Season II of Downton Abbey here in the States.

What follows is an account of a lucky lady that met Dan Stevens at the Press Tour for PBS in San Francisco, CA. as told by her, with some edits. Kathy thank you so much for allowing us to share this!


What a splendid evening with up and coming starring actor of Downton Abbey, Dan Stevens! He was accompained by other cast members Michelle Dockery who portrays Lady Mary Crawley and Maureen McGovern who portrays Cora, Countess of Grantham. The Executive producer of Masterpiece, Rebecca Eaton was there to moderate the interviews and lend her expertise, all being interviewed by the president of the affiliate here in San Francisco. (She is a very successful producer on lists of the most powerful tv producer in Time and Wall Street Journal) The attendees were mainly members of PBS/ KQED our local PBS affiliate as major contributors and minor ones, with occasional ones like me that lucked out with a ticket. We had wine and hors dearves in the lobby for about an hour so the actual program began at 8:00 PM.

(The venue has a spectacular view and in fact is right on the Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge right there in full view, The Cowell theatre at the old Fort Mason which is a cultural center now.)

First of all, I think they were all very tired as they had just come over from London a few days ago and on this whirlwind tour. In fact, Ms. Eaton mentioned that they were all very jet lagged but when they played the trailer for Downton (the one that has that song Downtown by Petula Clark) she said they were all dancing backstage awaiting to sit down. When Dan and the cast were introduced they looked tired and he took several glasses of water throughout the hour.

Some of the observations I noticed.

Michelle Dockery is so very tall, definitely taller than Dan. Elizabeth McGovern is put together and a more seasoned actor and I think they had her along to shore up the American audiences. She lives in the UK full time now and raises her family there, but originally from Chicago. She was informative but I focused mainly on Dan. Also, something was missing, like I really think Hugh Bonneville should've rounded out the cast showings, as Dan seemed hemmed in the middle of these women. However the interviewer/KQED station president was interviewing them and he was a man. I digress, sorry.

There was no press, which was interesting. I think it was suppose to be a thank you to hefty donors because funding for PBS is dwindling. Ms. Eaton several times throughout the night kept saying how SF has the highest ratings for Masterpiece, and Downton in particular, 10 million compared to 4 million on average for most US cities, far and above the others, even New York and Boston. It was almost as if she was begging the SF audience to keep funding...but I digress, again.

Dan was charming and engaging but you could tell he was very tired indeed. The real treat however was after the program. The cast and producers and entourage came out to the lobby (only way to exit) and while I was snapping views of the Golden Gate bridge outside the lobby I turned and there he was. I asked him to sign the program for "my friend Pat from twitter" I didn't even have to tell him what your twitter name was, he just wrote it himself! (Twitter much?) I mean it was instant that he recognized you!I asked him if I could take a picture of him for you and he graciously agreed.

One funny thing during the Q&A, he answered the question of being really popular from the show now by saying he got recognized taking out the trash so he has to dress better for that now, LOL! They called the show a phenom in the UK and portrayed it as the BBC dropping the ball on period dramas (without naming names because Masterpiece and BBC are joined at the hip). Another thing he mentioned is that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are real fans of the show and it was almost a non issue to Dan mentioning it, but then the producer, Rebecca Eaton, just about fell out of her chair and asked him to clarify. I think he's talked to Tom on Twitter but she is not a twitter generation-er but he didn't tell her where he got that information on stage.

Dan made a really nice mention about Masterpiece toward the end. They showed a compilation 40 year anniversary clip of the different and various shows on Masterpiece, starting with Alistaire Cooke and he had just realized that in viewing it, it was filled with all the quality dramas and programming that made him want to be an actor. In other words, he never realized what quality Masterpiece was involved with until seeing that compilation, he said. Definitely endearing to the PBS crowd of over 500.

As you are aware, I followed the limo out the parking lot and I was thinking they were probably all very tired and glad to get some sleep in their comfy hotel.


Thank you very much to Kathy for getting that signed program for me! It's a real treat and much unexpected. And of course thank you to Dan for always being so gracious and such a gentleman.

Patricia.