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.
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