Kathy's traffic read impresses the cast of The Downton Abbey Movie. Kevin Doyle, Jim Carter, and Imelda Staunton as well as director Michael Engler join us in studio to discuss the film.
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00:00And that's your traffic on 93.3 WMMR.
00:04Thank you very much, Kathy.
00:05All right, our next group in the studio is here to...
00:08Polite British applause.
00:09Oh, very polite, yes.
00:10Yes.
00:11Are here to promote a polite British movie from a polite British show.
00:16Now, actually, very, very incredibly popular program.
00:19We need some music to give us a little bit of...
00:23Does that fit?
00:24There you go.
00:25You think that fits properly?
00:26All right, thank you.
00:27They are here to promote the Downton Abbey film, which opens on Friday.
00:31And we have a whole group of people here this morning.
00:33Please welcome Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter, Michael Engler, and Kevin Doyle.
00:39Yes.
00:41To our program this morning.
00:43So great to have all of you here today.
00:45Thanks for being here.
00:46We appreciate it.
00:47Thanks for having us.
00:48So, how long has the film been in the works?
00:51Was this an idea before the series ended?
00:56I think it was talked about before the series ended, which was three years ago.
01:00But then the pressure grew, thanks to you, the media, because every interview we ever did always ended up off the record.
01:06Is there going to be a movie?
01:08And then the fans, everybody we met in the street.
01:10Will there be a film?
01:11Will there be a film?
01:12And three years later, there is.
01:13The main question I need to know, and since you want to get as many moviegoers as you can to go see this, I did not watch the series.
01:19That doesn't mean that I'm not going to watch the series.
01:21I shall.
01:22But can I see the movie?
01:24Yes.
01:25Okay.
01:26You don't need to have seen the show.
01:28Okay.
01:29All right.
01:30We're fanatics about downtown.
01:31I'm like, love you guys.
01:32When you started talking, I was like, oh, it's Carson.
01:35Carson is a butler.
01:37I should not watch the television series.
01:41So I went in and out of the series.
01:44I love stuff like this.
01:45I go back to upstairs, downstairs and shows anything that has the classes together.
01:51And there's this interesting dynamic that's existed.
01:54And we're perpetually drawn to this scenario.
01:57And what I wanted to know is, so you leave the roles for a little bit.
02:02Now, Imelda, you were not part of the series.
02:05You're just joining the movie right now.
02:06But was it hard to pick right up or was it just like, cop it on a bike?
02:12It was easy.
02:13Yeah, easy?
02:14Yeah.
02:15Easy to get right back in?
02:16We played it for six years.
02:17Yeah.
02:18I was wondering as an actor, though, if you go off...
02:20She didn't put the waistcoat on.
02:21I was back being a buckler.
02:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:23As soon as I put the dress back on.
02:25So does the movie start off where the TV show ended?
02:30It picks up about 18 months after the finale of the series.
02:34Okay.
02:35Michael Engler, our director.
02:36He's American, but we like him.
02:39I wanted to ask Imelda, because you are a new character to the storyline,
02:44can you tell us about who you're playing and how she fits in?
02:47I'll have to kill you.
02:49Everything about my character.
02:51But what is great is that it's got a very powerful storyline,
02:55which does affect the family.
02:57And I have my scenes with Dame Penelope Wilton and Dame Maggie Smith,
03:01so it doesn't get better than that.
03:03Well, you yourself are a dame, correct?
03:05Oh, I wish.
03:06You just cast that off.
03:07I thought you were.
03:08No, they're ridiculous.
03:09I'm far too young.
03:10She is a commander of the British Empire.
03:16There you go.
03:17All right.
03:18Yes, I am.
03:19All right.
03:20So what was great, A, it was a shock to be asked to do it,
03:25but then to have a really good, strong female storyline was really nice to play.
03:30So I wasn't just, you know, dressed up in a nice costume having a cup of tea.
03:33So it was very good to play those scenes.
03:35Michael, you've done a lot of ensemble work with different casts and the West Wing and other shows like that you've directed.
03:42There's a certain, anything like this where the ensemble is as top notch as this ensemble is, has to be really cool.
03:48But it also, it places a big onus on you to deliver to the hardcore fans and to also do something that's going to invite new people in.
03:56How did you approach the movie, the movie version as opposed to the TV version of the show?
04:01Well, we did want it to be something that would stand alone, that you could come in as a fan or as a, you know, new viewer.
04:07And the whole story would make sense from beginning, you know, to end.
04:11And bring in all the characters who the fans loved and were missing and wanted to see again.
04:18So we tried not to change the DNA and throw the baby out with the bathwater,
04:22but we wanted it to feel that we were also bringing some new life and new opportunities to it and giving it more cinematic scale.
04:28And Ikemelda, did you meet Maggie Smith on Harry Potter?
04:31I did.
04:32Okay, I didn't know if you'd met her before.
04:33Well, no, we'd actually worked together before Harry Potter.
04:35So, and, so, and I'd worked with Maggie a couple of times, I'd worked with Penelope on stage.
04:40So, you know, it, it wasn't intimidating because we all know each other and, you know, they're great heroines of mine anyway.
04:47But, but at the same time, you know, you have to get, go to work together.
04:50Yes.
04:51And, you know, you can't let that get in the way.
04:53I, I saw an interview with you, Imelda, actually, doing research and it was leading up.
04:57Well, the, the, the, the show you're on, they asked you if you would be part of a Downton Abbey movie.
05:02And you said, oh, I don't think, I don't think that's going to happen.
05:05And here you are.
05:06Were you lying when they gave that answer?
05:08No, not at all, not at all.
05:10Okay.
05:11Because it was, it was a huge surprise.
05:12Oh, was it?
05:13Oh, yeah.
05:14Okay.
05:15Well, I'll tell you.
05:16Yeah.
05:17I mean, Imelda and I have been married for 35 years.
05:18Yeah.
05:19If your research had shown that.
05:20So, when she came into the kitchen and said, I've been offered a part in the film.
05:23Yeah, what is it?
05:24Downton Abbey.
05:25Hello, that's my territory.
05:28And I thought, I really thought, and no insult to you, my darling, is that you would be playing
05:34an undercook.
05:35So when you, I found out you were playing a major aristocrat, I was fused.
05:40You guys didn't work too much together on the film.
05:43You didn't have scenes together?
05:44No, we didn't.
05:45I mean, we got a bit overexcited.
05:46We traveled to work three days together, a bit overexcited in the car.
05:51And then, but.
05:52But that's private, love.
05:54Okay.
05:55But no, he was one end of the dining room, I was the other, or across a field.
05:59But no, we didn't have any scenes.
06:00The marriage survived.
06:01We just found out this morning that the actual building, the estate, is going to be opening
06:08up for a night as essentially a bed and breakfast.
06:10If you guys have been made aware of this.
06:12It's $187 a night.
06:14That's it.
06:15Well, I don't think you get the whole cast.
06:18No, no, no.
06:20But you're still on the premises.
06:23Yeah.
06:24That's pretty cool.
06:25That's quite a savings.
06:26One of our favorite pop culture mentions from time to time.
06:29We reverence it all the time.
06:30Top secret, he was deja vu.
06:32Oh.
06:33Yes.
06:34Have we not met somewhere before?
06:36Oh, no.
06:39Oh, my God.
06:40You have no idea how that has permeated our references throughout the show.
06:46It's over 30 years ago.
06:48And I love it when people come up and say to me, are you deja vu?
06:52It's the one thing that makes me most proud.
06:55Were you cautious a little bit so it doesn't, as far as from a cinematic point of view,
07:00so it doesn't contrast too much against the television show?
07:04Yeah.
07:05I think we were always trying to balance it so it felt like itself, but it felt like a bigger
07:09version of itself.
07:10Okay.
07:11Without giving any spoilers away, we got to see it at the premiere in New York a couple
07:15of nights ago.
07:16And we never get to see the TV series with anybody else.
07:19You obviously, you sit and you watch it in your own sitting room at home.
07:22So to see it with an audience was astonishing.
07:24And I'm not, this is not a spoiler, but there's a moment when we see the house revealed
07:30and the theme music kicks in and there was this spontaneous round of applause.
07:34Oh, that's fantastic.
07:36And that's the moment, and that's only minutes into the film, you think,
07:40ah, this is working here.
07:42This is brilliant.
07:43Great.
07:44I can't imagine how much it would cost to run a place like that at any era.
07:47Yeah.
07:48That's apparently $186 a night.
07:51Imelda, with your work in the Harry Potter series, have you been to conventions, comic-cons
07:57and so forth?
07:58Because they're just, they're rabid for anything along those lines.
08:02And especially the Harry Potter series.
08:04No.
08:05Never been.
08:06No.
08:07No.
08:08You're not there as a fan yourself wandering around with helmets on and things?
08:11I could make a fortune, couldn't I?
08:12You could?
08:13It's funny, because at King's Cross Station in London, they've got a, you know, platform
08:18nine to three quarters.
08:19Platform nine to three quarters.
08:20Because when I go there, I think, what am I doing?
08:22I could get here at eight in the morning, I could put on a pink cardigan, and I could
08:26make a fortune.
08:27Yes, you could.
08:28You're also in the new Maleficent movie, when we were fans of, I assume it is.
08:33The last one.
08:34Yes, yes.
08:35Tiny, tiny, tiny pixie.
08:36How is that, because you're a trained actress, you have all these, you know, standing
08:41standard acting chops, and you're there, I assume, doing a lot of special effects or
08:43green screens and things like that?
08:44Is that a little...
08:45Yes, oh, look, but that's what the gig is, you know?
08:48It is, yeah.
08:49And also, different mediums and different types of work are fascinating.
08:52You have to sort of, you have to think on your feet, and you have to work in a different
08:55way, and that's always quite invigorating.
08:57So you're intrigued by the process alone is enough?
09:00Oh, absolutely.
09:01It's cool, because I would geek out, were I to see it, and I would not be able to keep
09:05it together.
09:06You have to remember, of course, you're still doing your little story, but yes, you're surrounded
09:10with nine cameras, and you've got a head thing on with lots of cameras on it, and you just
09:15have to focus on one spot.
09:16It's interesting here being in radio, and in England, you know, I did a lot of radio,
09:22and you're doing a scene, and the person you're talking to is the microphone, actually.
09:26Yeah.
09:27That's who you really have to...
09:28You guys, you know, you've got to... you're talking to that one person at home listening
09:31to you.
09:32Correct.
09:33And that's what you have to have in your mind.
09:34No, that's the way to approach it.
09:35I want to ask you, because of the success of the series, where's the weirdest place you've
09:41been recognized by a fan of Downton Abbey?
09:45For me, I was doing a cycle ride in Cambodia in the temples of Angkor Wat, and dressed all
09:54in lycra, skin tight.
09:55I don't want you to dwell on that.
10:00Purple with perspiration, and a busload of Chinese tourists decanted in front of me, and
10:05one of them went, Mr. Carson!
10:08This is beyond strange.
10:11I was in a vineyard in Bordeaux, and a couple of Americans came up to me and said,
10:17Oh, my God.
10:18This is like Brad Pitt.
10:20I took that as a compliment.