Spotlight on actress Lily James
The Downton Abbey actress stars in the eagerly awaited Mamma Mia sequel
Dream role In Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again the British actress plays a young version of Meryl Streep’s character, Donna Sheridan, a free-spirited hotel owner. Lily (29) appears in several flashbacks to the free-wheeling ’70s. “I really wanted to capture Donna’s gung-ho spirit,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “She’s so feisty and brave and uninhibited. I wanted people to believe that my Donna could grow into that woman.” The Cinderella star jumped at the chance to be part of the movie. “This was an opportunity of a lifetime. They were letting me sing Abba songs, on a boat in Croatia, and dance around. How could I not say yes?” Acting stripes Performing is in Lily’s blood. Her mother, Ninette Thomson, and grandmother, Helen Horton (Alien and Superman 3), were both actresses and her late father, James Thomson, was a musician. Lily, who attended London’s esteemed Guildhall School of Music and Drama, changed her surname to James after her dad’s death in 2008 from cancer. She bagged a part in the hit TV series Downton Abbey as Lady Rose MacClare, but it was her lead role in the Disney flick Cinderella that made Hollywood sit up and take note. Since then she’s starred in the 2017 action flick Baby Driver opposite Ansel Elgort, this year’s Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (based on the historical novel) and indie flick Little Woods with Tessa Thompson. Her ideal role? “I’d like to play a musician. Janis Joplin – I’d love that.” Personally speaking The English beauty has been dating former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith since 2014 but prefers to keep her love-life private and isn’t a fan of social media. “I feel I need to maintain a certain mystique because, as an actor, I need people to believe I can transform into characters. Instagram gives away too much.” Enough is enough She’s “really grateful and proud” to be part of the current Time’s Up and Me Too era. “It’s made me question stuff I’ve put up with over the years – things I’d got used to that are total bullsh*t, really. I’m so inspired by the women around me. There’s an honesty now and a confidence to be open about things.”