There’s a pivotal scene in Apple TV+ thriller, Defending Jacob, in which Michelle Dockery and Chris Evans – the parents of a young boy accused of murdering his classmate – are ambushed by a scrum of news cameras and paparazzi.
For Dockery, of course, it is an all too familiar experience – earning this kind of jarring attention ever since landing her breakout role as Lady Mary Crawley in the hit series, Downton Abbey.
“Yes, it felt very much like an overnight thing,” the British leading lady tells News Corp Australia of her rise, more than a decade ago now.
“It was by the second episode that aired in the UK and suddenly we were on the covers of newspapers. I just couldn’t get my head around it, it was overwhelming. Certainly, I had to get used to it. It was an adjustment, absolutely.”
Since the 2015 finale of the beloved series, and with the exception of last year’s hit Downton Abbey film, Dockery up-ended the upper-crust trajectory of her career
starring as a drug-addicted con artist in Good Behaviour and a ranch owner in New Mexico’s Wild West in Godless.
All traces of Lady Mary were further obliterated when she starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in Guy Ritchie’s 2019 film The Gentlemen, as the wife of a drug baron, in which she got to use her natural Essex accent.
“After those, I think any worries [of being stereotyped] were quickly dispelled,” she notes. “Thankfully, there are creative casting directors out there with a big imagination but I think if I was to be put into a 1920s drama it would be as if it was Lady Mary but in another house, if you know what I mean.”
Now, in Defending Jacob, she pivots once more – this time as a devoted mother, grappling with the reality her son may be a killer.
This journey for me, playing Laurie, has been such a rollercoaster,” she says. “Laurie has doubts about her son and then also about her husband and I found her struggle with guilt interesting, that she thinks about the possibility that her son really did commit that crime and if there was anything she could have done as a mother to avoid it.”
The series was shot in Boston, where she lived for several months.
“I loved it. I’m very much a city girl and I think Boston is a great place. I’ve described it as
if New York and London had a baby.”
The 38-year-old is chatting via Zoom from her London home on her fourth week of self-isolation. She’s make-up free, looks casually elegant in a black shirt and jeans, and appears to be sitting in her living room.
“Yes, I have a very comfy sofa, where I am now and where I’ve been spending much more time than usual.”
Dockery smiles often and looks happy and relaxed, despite the unusually restrictive circumstances we all find ourselves in.
“We’re doing fine, thank you,” she nods, referencing her boyfriend, music manager Jasper Waller-Bridge, 31, the younger brother of Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
The couple has been together for several months, making this the first relationship for Dockery since her fiance, John Dineen, died of cancer in 2015.
She has never been one for opening up about her personal life, though she is happy to share some lockdown lowdown.
“I’m reading a lot, cooking way more than I ever usually do, so I’m enjoying that. I’ve been doing a lot of my mum’s traditional recipes, so a lot of stews to keep the immune system up. And I love Italian food so I have been cooking a lot of pasta,” she says.
“I’m also putting up pictures that have been leaning against a wall, [like] an Andy Warhol print, plus taking care of my plants.”
On top of her binge list is a TV classic, The Sopranos.
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“This is the third time I’ve done that and [it] is still, to this day, my favourite show. It’s definitely one of the best TV shows of all time.”
Sharing her own fan moment, she leans in: “Actually, I met [Sopranos star] Edie Falco. I think she’s the greatest actress on the planet and when we met, she was everything I imagined her to be, even though I could barely speak because I was so starstruck,” she laughs.
Dockery knew instinctively from a young age she was destined for the stage.
A precocious child, she says, it was at her own insistence that she changed schools to start chasing her dream.
“It was a big decision at the time and now looking back, I think it’s amazing that at 12 I knew I was meant to be somewhere else. That decision changed the course of my life.”
Her career began in theatre productions and gathered momentum when she received an Olivier Award nomination for Burnt by the Sun, followed by a Best Newcomer trophy for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, at the 2008 Evening Standard Awards. At the same time, she began landing TV roles in productions such as The Red Riding Trilogy, and a BBC adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, before her breakout performance in Downton.
As for the rumours of another Downtown Abbey movie on the horizon, she is enthusiastic as the suggestion.
“The way Hugh Bonneville talks about it,” she explains, “it’s almost like we’re all holding hands and jumping in at the same time. And yes, that would have to happen if we were to do another movie. [But] I would absolutely be in, of course.”
* Defending Jacob, streaming now Apple TV+
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiogFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3R2L2Rvd250b24tYWJiZXktYmVhdXR5LW1pY2hlbGxlLWRvY2tlcnktcmV2ZWFscy1saWZlLXdpdGgtbmV3LWxvdmUtaW4taXNvbGF0aW9uL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvNWQ5YmU3NDBjNjg5NmZlNzNiNzVmNWQ3YTVmMmU3OWTSAaIBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvZW50ZXJ0YWlubWVudC90di9kb3dudG9uLWFiYmV5LWJlYXV0eS1taWNoZWxsZS1kb2NrZXJ5LXJldmVhbHMtbGlmZS13aXRoLW5ldy1sb3ZlLWluLWlzb2xhdGlvbi9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzVkOWJlNzQwYzY4OTZmZTczYjc1ZjVkN2E1ZjJlNzlk?oc=5
2020-05-23 12:25:26Z
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