‘I never watch the TV series or films I act in’: Michelle Dockery on Downton Abbey and why she’s nothing like Lady Mary
Warm, enthusiastic and fun, Michelle Dockery tells STYLE about playing the cold and aloof Lady Mary Crawley in the British TV drama, her other big projects, and why theatre will always be her first love
With its stunning scenery and slew of fine British acting talent, ITV’s Downton Abbey was always destined to be popular with its fellow countrymen and women.
I come from a working-class background where we had very little money and so I’ve had to try to reimagine myself as Lady Mary on many different levels
Whether anyone could have predicted the global impact of the series, which ran from 2010 to 2015, is another matter entirely – but this year, after months of fervent speculation, the Crawley family, including Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham, and Dame Maggie Smith as acid-tongued matriarch the Dowager Countess, are set to conquer Hollywood with a feature-length film.
For Dockery, getting the chance to once again portray the eldest of the Grantham children, and mother to the future heir of Downton itself, was a comforting experience after her own high-profile forays into cinema of late. “She is a very modern woman in the sense that she has a strong sense of independence and refuses to be bullied or manipulated,” says Dockery of Lady Mary.
“I’ve enjoyed softening some of the harsher sides of her personality and revealing so many more layers to her. Mary’s a very complex character. She also finds relationships with men to be more problematic and that reflects the dilemma of many women of her time who felt enormous pressure and faced many restrictions when it came to relationships and marriage.”
Born in East London, Dockery first made her name as part of the National Youth Theatre before minor TV roles gave way to her Downton breakthrough at the turn of the decade. In spite of her recent cinematic turns – including big-budget action-thriller Non-Stop in 2014 – Dockery still harbours huge affection for the stage.
“My roots are really in theatre,” she explains. “One of my most important roles was playing Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Old Vic in London. I received a lot of attention for that and that was largely how I came to be cast for Downton because the show’s executive producer had seen me as Eliza on stage.”