February 4, 2012 1:40 PM ET
Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Cora in
'Downton Abbey.'
Carnival Film & Television
Limited 2011 for MASTERPIECE
The U.S. is no stranger to British invasions, be it four Liverpudlian moptops or TV shows featuring a surly talent judge seeking a hot new pop singer. But the latest U.K. import to overtake the pop culture zeitgeist is the saga of a World War I-era aristocratic family and their devoted household staff. The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Downton Abbey, now airing its second season on PBS, welcomes viewers into its arcane world populated by lords, ladies, entails, deathbed marriages and blackmailing wives. Presiding over Downton Abbey itself is Cora, Countess of Grantham, exquisitely portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern (Ordinary People, She's Having a Baby). The American-born actress has lived in England for "nearly 20 years," making her a natural choice to play the Yankee wife of the Earl of Grantham. With the highly anticipated third season of Downton currently in preproduction, McGovern checked in from London for a brief chat.
So the big Downton Abbey news this week is that Shirley MacLaine has been cast as Cora’s mother. Are you excited?
I’m over the moon. She’s just a great actress and is such a life force. I think it’s going to be fantastic.
Does this give you more of an idea about your character’s past, other than the fact that she’s a New York heiress?
Well, yeah, it’s been a very murky area, and casting anyone will, by its very nature, stamp a personality and a definition on a family and a lineage, so the very fact of [Shirley’s] casting gives me a much clearer idea of where Cora comes from. I think that the writers and the producers and I are just coming to terms with where Cora comes from and what her life story is now. I love having the opportunity to explore a part for a great length of time, really get deeper and deeper into it, because you only have a chance to do that once or twice in a career.
The name of Shirley’s character is "Martha Levinson." So is it possible that Cora is from a Jewish family?
It is possible! So we’ll see if it has ramifications later on in the story as the inevitable wheels of history roll forward, but to be perfectly honest, I’m finding out along with everybody else [laughs]! So I’m doing my best to adjust to these revelations as well.
There is such a Downton Abbey infatuation sweeping the U.S. right now. Did you ever expect Americans were going to take to it the way that we have?
No, absolutely not. Whenever I work on anything, there’s always the fantasy that what one is doing is the next Citizen Kane-slash-Sopranos. But I have long become accustomed to the fact that the reality of show business rarely falls into place in such a satisfying way, so this was a shock to me. But I can be nothing but grateful and totally overwhelmed by it. I mean, the nicest thing of all, actually, is when an actor feels that little story points are registering with an audience. The fact that the audience is participating in the energy and pleasure of it has been really unusual for me, and needless to say I am definitely enjoying it.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/downton-girl-elizabeth-mcgovern-on-americas-new-national-pastime-20120204#ixzz1lc3MzX4Z
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