It's two years since Dan Stevens took the plunge and left the lords and ladies of Downton. He tells us how Hollywood toughened him up
So, Downton Abbey. You're well out of it, right? "Well out of it? What do you mean?" Dan Stevens knows exactly what I mean, but he is too loyal to say. It's gone off the boil a bit, I say, since you left. Did he get out of the UK's most popular costume drama in recent history at just the right time? "I felt it was the right moment to leave and I went with that feeling," he says, earnestly. "It is what it is. It was a fun thing to be a part of. I like the way people enjoy the show with a mixture of affection and humour."
This is an excellent description of the peculiarly British phenomenon that made Stevens' name as Matthew Crawley, the heir to the Downton estate. His untimely demise in a car crash had viewers choking on their mince pies at the end of the Christmas special two years ago. Despite memorable turns in BBC adaptations of Sense And Sensibility (where he played Edward Ferrars, obviously) and The Line Of Beauty (where he played the lead role of Nick Guest), until now this is easily the role for which the once floppy-haired and Hugh Grant-esque Stevens has been best known.
Continue reading...