‘I knew my job was to fulfil a man’s fantasy’: Elizabeth McGovern on Downton, early fame and co-starring with Brad Pitt

As the Downton Abbey finale hits the big screen, the actor looks back on the pitfalls of scoring huge success so young – and the liberation she later found singing in a band and writing a play about Ava GardnerFor the maudlin among us, the final Downton Abbey film should perhaps come with a warning. Everything in it is tinged with wistfulness – a goodbye to cherished characters and a farewell to a stately home that was a sturdy presence in a transient world. When the ITV series started in 2010, wasn’t life … better? Did Elizabeth McGovern feel this too, the sense of time passing? After all, her character, Cora, is now ageing out of custodianship of Downton along with her husband, Lord Grantham, in favour of a younger generation and a changing era as the 1930s dawn.“No!” says McGovern, snapping me out of my melancholy. “I feel very excited that I’m going into a gratifying new phase in my career.” As well as reviving Cora, there is the play she has written, Ava: The Secret Conversations. Starring McGovern as Hollywood actor Ava Gardner, it will run in New York, Chicago and Toronto, having made its debut in London in 2022. There is also a new album of her folk-inspired music. “I feel like I’m just beginning,” she declares as we meet at her publicist’s London office. At first glance, McGovern, fine-boned and composed, seems delicate – but if you only go on first impressions, you’ll miss her rebellious spirit. Continue reading...

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