DAN STEVENS

'I spent most of my early years totally rebelling against anything I could': Dan Stevens on how he went from rebellious youth to Downton Abbey's heir apparent

By Louise Gannon
Last updated at 10:30 PM on 3rd September 2011

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The Oxbridge-educated actor has been hailed as the new Colin Firth – and, happily for us, has a bad habit of leaking secrets about the hit series that made his name... 'People look at me, they know I've appeared in costume dramas and they automatically assume I must be a Tory, I must be a certain type of person,' said Dan Stevens
With his impeccable manners, Oxbridge education and the well-cut features of a natural aristocrat, it’s hardly surprising that Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens has been talked about in Hollywood as the next Colin Firth.

Posing by a white Lamborghini against the impressive backdrop of Highclere Castle – the Hampshire home his fictional character, Matthew Crawley, is set to inherit in the phenomenally successful ITV drama – Stevens effortlessly exudes that sense of elite ownership that has casting directors rushing to sign him for anything that requires a touch of real British class.

He’s previously been in such period pieces as Sense And Sensibility, The Turn Of The Screw and Hay Fever.

Yet in reality this public-school-educated actor spent his youth rebelling against the Establishment and the privileged upper class that Downton Abbey depicts.

As he sits in the cosy dining room of The Yew Tree, a pub near Highclere, he says, ‘People look at me, they know I’ve appeared in costume dramas and they automatically assume I must be a Tory, I must be a certain type of person.

'Not a lot of people would think that I spent most of my early years totally rebelling against anything I could, getting suspended from school, going on demonstrations. I was a pretty difficult teenager.’
Stevens, 28, grew up near the Brecon Beacons in Wales, but he moved to Kent in his early teens after gaining a scholarship to the highly prestigious Tonbridge School.

'She (Dame Judi Dench) told me once, "Always remember we're not proper grown-ups." It makes me smile when I think about that, because it is absolutely accurate when it comes to actors,' said Dan
‘I was never very happy at school,’ he says in his quiet, perfectly modulated accent.
‘I didn’t get on with the other kids, I didn’t fit in. My parents (both of whom are teachers) thought it was an amazing opportunity for me, but I felt quite isolated. There were a lot of very rich children there and that did something to me. I spent most of my time running away, causing problems.’

Stevens’s youth was marked by bad behaviour and academic brilliance. More recently, his loyal champions have included Dame Judi Dench, with whom he appeared in Hay Fever (they’ve since become regular correspondents), and Sir Peter Hall, who gave him his first big break. But he believes his life could have turned out very differently.

Adopted at birth, he says he can’t remember ever fitting in with anyone.

‘At primary school I behaved terribly. I was always in trouble, always causing trouble. When I went to Tonbridge I just continued along the same path. Anything I could do to rebel, I would.

‘At the age of 11 I was about 6ft tall and my voice had completely broken. That caused problems. I was this gangly, spotty, very unattractive kid. I wasn’t cool and I wasn’t a nerd. I didn’t even want to fit in with anyone.’

His impressive exam results (despite scant revision) set him apart, as did his precocious ability as a performer.

‘At 13, in my first year of Tonbridge, I went up for the part of Macbeth. I was up against the 17-and 18-year-olds, but for some reason I got the part. It made me incredibly unpopular with my peers, but it was the English and drama teachers who stepped in to save me when others wanted me kicked out of the school.

‘When I look back I have a hell of a lot to thank them for. I think there were a lot of people steering me – including my parents – which I didn’t quite realise at the time because I was pushing against everything.’
On Downton Abbey: 'I'm incredibly proud to be part of it. I think it's an amazing series and I also believe that, in its own way, it does have the element of the subversive. It's not the average costume drama'
Asked if he feels that being adopted played any part in his feelings of isolation, he nods slowly.

‘That’s probably true. But I also believe it was just within me. I’ve never tried to find my real parents. I’m very grateful to my mum and dad for adopting me – they’re completely incredible people. It was my dad who encouraged me to question everything, to forge my own path, to think, to read. I always felt it was my right to question everything.’

It was Stevens’s decision to go to Cambridge – to read English at Emmanuel College – despite having joined the National Youth Theatre and being set on a career as an actor.
‘I think I knew I wanted to act since I was in primary school. I remember the first ever play I did; I was cast last in the class because I was the wild kid. I was given the part of a Mrs Mop character who came on at the end, and it was meant to be a vent for all my bad behaviour, to do as I wanted within the structure of a play. I loved it immediately and it’s how I continued to see acting, as this chance to act out within the parameters of a part, a sort of structured misbehaviour.’

‘I wanted to go to Cambridge rather than drama school because I liked the idea that whatever you did had to be what you came up with. There is no drama course. You opt to go and do a play and you’ll find yourself there with historians, politicians, astrophysicists. That, to me, was much more exciting than playing at being a horse or living with a whole load of people who wanted to act.
'The new series starts off with World War I. I spend a lot of time in the filthy trenches,' said Dan
'You also get the opportunity to experiment, try other things and go in a different direction, which is what I did.’
At Cambridge Stevens became drawn into a very different type of performing when he joined the famous Footlights, developing a new ambition to become a comedian. He says he was an awful stand-up yet he pushed himself to perform comedy rather than appear in straight plays.

‘I was good at acting and I wasn’t good at comedy, but that didn’t put me off. I wanted to do it, try it and see what would happen. I was completely obsessed with the whole subversive world of comedy, and there were a lot of very good people who were my contemporaries at Cambridge.’

They included Simon Bird and Joe Thomas from The Inbetweeners and comedians Tim Key and Mark Watson.

‘I remember coming down to London a few times and performing at the Amused Moose in Soho. My overriding memory is one of terror. I definitely got a bad reaction, but I learnt a few tricks about dealing with audiences and dealing with my terror, which have definitely been good for me.’

One of the few straight plays he did at Cambridge was Macbeth – yet again – in which he starred opposite Sir Peter Hall’s daughter, Rebecca. In his final year of university he began touring with Hall’s theatre company, yet despite this he only narrowly missed out on getting a first.
In person, Stevens is highly contradictory. His tales of going on demonstrations are all delivered in his slightly hesitant, soft, sonorous tones, and he’s unfailingly polite to everyone. When talking of his own achievements – he played the lead role in the BBC adaptation of Booker-winning novel The Line Of Beauty at just 23, and recently finished work on the Hollywood film Vamps with Alicia Silverstone – he’s continually self-deprecating.

Asked about the Hollywood experience, he says, ‘I didn’t have a big trailer. I don’t think anyone knew who I was. They were all terribly nice, though.’

As for Downton Abbey, he says, ‘I’m incredibly proud to be part of it. I think it’s an amazing series and I also believe that, in its own way, it does have the element of the subversive. It’s not the average costume drama. It’s not adapted from a 19th-century novel; it’s a period drama written in modern times, which means subjects like Lady Mary’s affair can be explored. That’s something completely radical.

‘The new series starts off with World War I. It’s a very different landscape from the manicured lawns of Downton. I spend a lot of time in the filthy trenches.’

Stevens has at times found himself in bother with the Downton bosses. A Twitter obsessive, he blurted out details of the Christmas special before the project had been announced.

‘I was very definitely in trouble,’ he says. ‘I completely gave the game away.

‘It’s quite incredible for an actor to have the opportunity to speak to, and hear directly from, the audience…’

Dan at a polo match with actress Laura Carmichael who plays Lady Edith Crawley
He pauses. ‘I think viewers will notice that I’ve lost a stone-and-a-half since the first series. It’s pretty much down to the fact that I had tons of comments on Twitter about how fat Matthew was looking. It was true; I’d put on weight, stopped going to the gym. I took it as positive criticism and started back at the gym and watched what I ate. I’m definitely looking fitter thanks to Twitter.’

There’s a huge bond between the actors on the show.
‘We all get on very well because we spend so much time together,’ says Stevens.

‘Filming days are very long, and in the evenings Hugh Bonneville, myself and most of the cast come down to the pub and have a few drinks. We mainly stay in local hotels, except Maggie (Smith).

‘Maggie is the real star of the show – we all accept that. She’s also a tremendous actor to work with. She does have an incredible sense of humour. She has this way of rolling her eyes when things are just taking that bit too long.

‘The filming is definitely tougher on the women than the men because of their corsets. It’s pretty hard for the girls even to eat lunch – all the men have to worry about is red marks on their necks from the incredibly stiff collars.

'The most interminable scenes are those with food, when we have to sit around doing take after take chewing on pork in congealed gravy. But there are also real high points, like playing football, which really upsets the costume department because the clothes can get damaged. Then we have to switch to cricket.

‘For the new series we shot a lot of scenes in Oxford and Suffolk, where the Somme trenches were built by World War I experts. I bought a vintage football so we could play during the breaks. No one cared how filthy we got our costumes this time.’

In the first series, the surprise sex symbol was neither Stevens nor Bonneville, but the crippled valet John Bates, played by Brendan Coyle. Stevens smiles.

‘He did get a lot of teasing about that, but it was also entirely justified. Women like a man like Bates.’

With American audiences gushing over the show – and Stevens singled out as a particular favourite – it seems his future as a leading actor is guaranteed. In fact, he has already appeared with U.S. heavyweights Donald Sutherland and William Hurt, in a TV adaptation of Frankenstein back in 2004.

‘I didn’t hang out much with Donald Sutherland. I just remember him being physically huge. I did spend a lot of time with William Hurt, who was brilliant and strange and very, very intense. We still keep in touch. He writes brilliantly and is always full of different ideas and opinions. He’s definitely had a big effect on me.’

Dame Judi Dench also gave him a valuable piece of advice.

‘What I admire about Judi and Maggie is that they’ve never developed huge egos. They both enjoy working with new actors and both are incredibly encouraging. Judi was amazing with me when I worked with her on Hay Fever.

‘First off she told me that, as an actor, whatever you do you should always keep returning to the theatre, which I plan to do.

'She also has this attitude to herself and to life which is so very different from that of many stars. She doesn’t take herself seriously. She told me once, “Always remember we’re not proper grown-ups.” It makes me smile when I think about that, because it is absolutely accurate when it comes to actors.’

Now married with a baby daughter, Stevens appears to have come full circle, embracing the conformity he once rebelled against. He grins.

‘There’s still some rebelling in me to be done. Maybe I’ll now rebel against my own career. For my next part I should choose something completely out of character to what everyone expects. I don’t know what – but you should always expect the unexpected.’

‘Downton Abbey’ returns on September 18 on ITV1



Source: Mail Online/dailymail.co.uk