Picture courtesy of Carnival
With the new series of Downton Abbey hitting our screens on Sunday night, we asked actress Daisy Lewis (aka Branson’s new girl, Sarah Bunting) to tell us about the preparation that goes into a role.
When is the first day on an acting job? When does the character really begin to take shape and the actor’s job begin? Is it the day you audition? The day your agent phones you and you hear those longed-for words ‘you got it’, or is it the day you have your first costume fitting? For me, and most definitely in the case of Downton Abbey, costume wins hands down. So it was with a belly full of butterflies that I made my way to period costume mecca, the labyrinthine and ‘industry-only’ branch of Angels in Hendon, to start the preparations for season five.
I have to admit, series four of Downton, where my character Sarah Bunting first makes her appearance, was hard for me to watch. The hats! They haunt me to this day and earned me the nickname (from my adorable little brothers) of ‘The Brown Mushroom’. However, the costumes were absolutely perfect for the scenes and for my character’s journey at the time; it’s hard but utterly essential for an actor to pocket their vanity and serve the needs of the script – even if that involves fungi-shaped headgear.
This year, the gods of Downton are smiling on me. In keeping with my character’s changing journey, the palette of colours that Anna Robbins (our amazing costume designer) has chosen reflects the bolder choices that Sarah is making in Julian Fellowes’ script. I nearly cried with relief. Jewel tones and clean lines have replaced the brown and, although there are still hats, there’s not a ’shroom in the room.
Costume plays such a huge part in the creation of a character that it’s often hard to tell an actor exactly what to wear, so to be involved in the decisions from the beginning was a blessing. Dressing a character is like a book – the design of the cover should be a representation of the content. Even something as small as the height of a woman’s heel says so much about who she is and how she feels. So, having discovered Sarah’s ‘new’ look, the next step was to make it to the full cast and crew read through without combusting with excitement and nerves.
On a grey day in a top-secret location in West London, almost the entire cast and key crew members of Downton Abbey convened for the first time in months to hear the brand-spanking new scripts. There were a couple of double takes from passers-by on the high street as Mr Carson (Jim Carter) and Lady Rose (Lily James) greeted each other, and Daisy (Sophie McShera) arrived in a deeply un-Downton outfit (definitely more ‘mode’ than ‘maid’). Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) regaled the cast with tales from her recent sojourn in Los Angeles (where she’s mobbed by ‘Patmobitches’), and the heavenly Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and I discussed our mutual love for wigs and weaves before we were invited to take our seats.
Very often in TV, the read through is the only opportunity you will have to ‘rehearse’ alongside the other actors and hear a scene before you actually film it, so it was no surprise to see some anxious faces. I, needless to say, was especially nervous because we read the first two episodes of the series, in which the indomitable Sarah Bunting plays a large part. But once we got started, the nerves wore off and the magic took hold. Suddenly it all sprang to life and the words jumped off the page. There were laughs as Kevin Doyle, who plays Molesley, expertly delivered his funny yet touching lines, and silences and gasps as we enacted the more dramatic scenes. Then lunch was called and just as I was attacking a tuna sandwich, Julian Fellowes took me aside, along with Catherine Morshead (the director of the first block of filming), to discuss Sarah Bunting’s journey this season. There are some big scenes. Some very big scenes. And it’s a delicate balance portraying a character who is so driven by her beliefs that she alienates others while simultaneously making her empathetic. Julian gave me some crucial insights into her motivations and the confidence to trust in my instincts. Then it was back to the table for episode two and more fireworks. Now I just can’t wait to get on set…
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