Downton’s glitter girl says Mary Christmas
WHAT would the Dowager Countess of Grantham say?
Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery swaps Edwardian formality for cutting-edge style in a dazzling festive photoshoot.
Michelle, 38, has taken Hollywood by storm since she played Lady Mary Crawley in the hit ITV drama and film.
And she dons greens and reds as she puts on a daring Christmas glitter show for the
Net-A-Porter fashion magazine, Porter, inset above left.
The Essex-born actress now has a starring role in Guy Ritchie’s latest film, The Gentlemen, due to be released in January.
But she says she has come across ardent Downton fans in the most surprising of places, even the “burly” driver of her taxi. Michelle said: “I got into a cab a little while ago and the driver was this big, burly Guy Ritchie type...‘Where you going, love?’
And then it went a bit quiet. And then he was like, ‘You all right?’.
“And he suddenly started talking about Downton. I just laughed out loud.”
When she is in the UK, Michelle usually manages to travel in relative anonymity, but she says it is a very different story across the Pond.
“Brits are too cool to approach you, but in America people have more confidence to come over and say something,” she said.
“It still takes me very much by surprise, but it goes in waves. When the Downton film came out it peaked again.”
Meanwhile, Highclere Castle, the Hampshire location for
Downton Abbey, has been decked out in Yuletide colour, including an imposing 20ft Christmas tree.
The castle’s owner, the Countess of Carnarvon, who has written a Downtown Abbey-era book of recipes and traditions, Christmas At Highclere, said: “White lights are draped around the tree first, before baubles and little figures are hung off the branches.”