live chat with Hugh Bonneville
A few tidbits of pseudo-spoilers on season3 from today's livechat with Hugh Bonneville after the cut because of spoilers for season2 as well.
About Season3:
We have the readthru for S3 next Monday - yikes! - and start filming a week later.[...] S3 - well it starts in the spring of 1920, that's a few months after the end of S2 and spans about 18 months. After the urgency of the war years, things calm down a bit... but only a bit!
In Series 2, we see your character undergo a bit of a mid-life identity crisis and he ends up acting out by being short-tempered with family and staff. Did you feel sympathetic with your character's attitude of self-pity during the war?
Robert becomes a bit of a lost soul - his raison d'être is the house and what it stands for. When that gets taken over for the war effort, when his heir goes off to fight, when the certainties of the life he knew start to crumble, then I think introspection and even depression begins to circle him. At least that's how I saw it.
Maggie Smith seems to relish her character as the Dowager. How is it to work with her? Your character plays off hers in a great way.
Dame Mummy has won 2 Oscars and played opposite Olivier, for heaven's sake - I'm in acting Nirvana on a daily basis. There is no doubt Julian saves the best lines for her (rightly so!) and I long to hear them zinging their way over the net at the recipient. Game, set and match.
On Lord Grantham's relationship with his daughters:
Having played Mr Bennet in a skewed version of P&P I can honestly say that being the father of only daughters is a NIGHTMARE. Seriously, though, while he disapproves of Sybil's antics, he admires her outspokenness; where in S1 Mary's temperament was sometimes selfish, in S2 he warms to her growing compassion and womanhood; and Edith, well, she never gets the breaks does she, so of course Dad looks out for her!
I love the series and wish that it would delve a bit more into the relationship between you and your American wife. How do you approach that relationship in character?
As for me and Cora - well it's an example of The Bucanneers, the rich American heiresses of the late 19thC who married into the aristocracy. They were, in effect, business transactions - cash for titles. Cora and Robert were exactly that but - luckily for them - they fell in love! It helps that Elizabeth and I have played husband and wife twice before. Third time lucky!
On working in Highclere Castle:
The house is the most important character in the show (and it has the hugest motorhome; as for the riders in its contract - unbelievable; cherries out of season etc, you know the score). It's a truly remarkable and beautiful place to film; the staff are on hand to make ABSolutely sure that our props guys don't move things they shouldn't - not that they don't trust them, it's just that the insurers don't. Lord & Lady C often drop in to watch a bit of filming - a memorable day last season was when Lady C drove me and Michelle (Mary) up to the folly on top of the estate to look over the view. Wonderful.
***
So in two weeks time they'll start filming. Hopefully pictures from the set and spoilers will come our way. And it begins in the Spring. Wedding is approaching? Sybil's baby is on its way? Can't wait!
About Season3:
We have the readthru for S3 next Monday - yikes! - and start filming a week later.[...] S3 - well it starts in the spring of 1920, that's a few months after the end of S2 and spans about 18 months. After the urgency of the war years, things calm down a bit... but only a bit!
In Series 2, we see your character undergo a bit of a mid-life identity crisis and he ends up acting out by being short-tempered with family and staff. Did you feel sympathetic with your character's attitude of self-pity during the war?
Robert becomes a bit of a lost soul - his raison d'être is the house and what it stands for. When that gets taken over for the war effort, when his heir goes off to fight, when the certainties of the life he knew start to crumble, then I think introspection and even depression begins to circle him. At least that's how I saw it.
Maggie Smith seems to relish her character as the Dowager. How is it to work with her? Your character plays off hers in a great way.
Dame Mummy has won 2 Oscars and played opposite Olivier, for heaven's sake - I'm in acting Nirvana on a daily basis. There is no doubt Julian saves the best lines for her (rightly so!) and I long to hear them zinging their way over the net at the recipient. Game, set and match.
On Lord Grantham's relationship with his daughters:
Having played Mr Bennet in a skewed version of P&P I can honestly say that being the father of only daughters is a NIGHTMARE. Seriously, though, while he disapproves of Sybil's antics, he admires her outspokenness; where in S1 Mary's temperament was sometimes selfish, in S2 he warms to her growing compassion and womanhood; and Edith, well, she never gets the breaks does she, so of course Dad looks out for her!
I love the series and wish that it would delve a bit more into the relationship between you and your American wife. How do you approach that relationship in character?
As for me and Cora - well it's an example of The Bucanneers, the rich American heiresses of the late 19thC who married into the aristocracy. They were, in effect, business transactions - cash for titles. Cora and Robert were exactly that but - luckily for them - they fell in love! It helps that Elizabeth and I have played husband and wife twice before. Third time lucky!
On working in Highclere Castle:
The house is the most important character in the show (and it has the hugest motorhome; as for the riders in its contract - unbelievable; cherries out of season etc, you know the score). It's a truly remarkable and beautiful place to film; the staff are on hand to make ABSolutely sure that our props guys don't move things they shouldn't - not that they don't trust them, it's just that the insurers don't. Lord & Lady C often drop in to watch a bit of filming - a memorable day last season was when Lady C drove me and Michelle (Mary) up to the folly on top of the estate to look over the view. Wonderful.
***
So in two weeks time they'll start filming. Hopefully pictures from the set and spoilers will come our way. And it begins in the Spring. Wedding is approaching? Sybil's baby is on its way? Can't wait!