DOWNTON BOY
Allen Leech thought his stay in Downton Abbey would be short-lived – now he’s starring in the big-screen version. Martha Hayes finds out how he went from small-town kid to rising Hollywood star
Irish actor Allen Leech (aka Tom Branson) talks about the Downton Abbey film
Allen Leech is recalling a time in his early career when he went to LA thinking he was ‘the cock of the walk’. So far, so wannabe Hollywood star. Except, he didn’t have a car, and this was 2005, so there was no such thing as an Uber. ‘It cost me $85 to get to an audition and I only had $100 on me [to get there and back],’ he explains, sheepishly, in his broad Irish accent. ‘So I had to wait around for someone to finish the same audition and ask them for a lift!’
The Downton Abbey star is telling me this, not to emphasise how far he’s come, but because – true story – my Uber has just broken down on the way to meet him in a bar on Sunset Boulevard. Leech, 38, now a local, having moved to the city three years ago, is chock-full of recommendations for this newbie in town. I should explore Laurel Canyon. I have to check out a piano bar called Tramp Stamp Granny’s (yes, really). But, above all, I must learn to drive. He would say that, having made his name as a chauffeur in the smash-hit British period drama, wouldn’t he? ‘When I was first cast in Downton and had to drive Dame Maggie Smith [Violet Crawley] around, they never once asked me for my licence,’ he says. ‘They just asked me, at the audition, “Can you drive?” and I was like, “Yeah.”’ Good job he was telling the truth; but don’t most actors tell white lies on their résumés? ‘Everyone says horse riding or sword fighting. I got caught out early on: I said I was fluent in Gaelic,’ he confesses. ‘I learned this script phonetically and the director was English, so didn’t know any
‘THERE ARE DEFINITELY GOING TO BE TEARS’
different, but this guy from the Irish language channel kept making me say a line again and again. After 32 takes, the director asked, “What’s wrong? It sounds perfect.” And he said, “There’s a big difference between saying, ‘My dad is a great mechanic’ and ‘My dad is a great carrot’!”’
It’s almost four years since we said farewell to Downton after six triumphant series, and while a big-screen reunion was perhaps inevitable – the movie hits screens this September – I wonder how easy it was for the cast to simply pick up their coat tails where they left off. ‘There was a sense of trepidation until we did the read through,’ says Leech, whose character Tom Branson started off working for the aristocratic Crawley family, then married into it. ‘I remember Michelle [Dockery, who plays Lady Mary] saying, “I just hope I can get the accent back,” because she’d been playing an American in [US drama series] Good Behaviour. But four pages in, everyone was doing exactly what they always did. There are definitely going to be tears; it’s what [creator] Julian [Fellowes] does. I was happy when I read the script. Hugh Bonneville [Earl of Grantham] messaged me on Whatsapp to say: “Blimey, Al – you have more plots than an allotment.”’
Talking of Whatsapp, is there a secret group where the whole cast chat? ‘There is,’ he says. ‘There’s a main group, although some people get annoyed when others don’t respond, so it’s like, “We’ll just talk over here.” My favourite group is “DA MOVIE”, which was set up when we were about to start filming. That’s Hugh, me, Michelle, Laura Carmichael [Lady Edith] and Michael Fox [Andrew Parker], and that’s quite active still. Then Jim Carter [Carson] is in charge of cast dinner emails. He’s a member of an actors’ club, 2 Brydges Place in London, where we meet up once a year. Even Maggie comes.’
Though a bona fide member of the cast, when the show launched in 2010, Leech tells me he was only hired for three episodes. And while his character eventually married Lady Sybil [Jessica Brown Findlay], when she died in series three Leech assumed his time would be up, too. ‘It would have been easy for Julian to send Branson back to Dublin. I was really expecting that. In fact, I had a £500 bet with Jessica that if she left, I’d be gone,’ he says, smiling. ‘I did pay her!’
The global success of the show turned the cast into household names overnight, catapulting Leech from jobbing actor with some Irish films – Cowboys & Angels and Man About Dog, both in 2004 – and minor TV parts under his belt, to serious contender. Last year, he followed up his role as John Cairncross, one of the Bletchley Park code-breakers in the Oscar-winning The Imitation Game (2014), with a part in the much-lauded Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. For the latter, Leech initially auditioned for the part of Freddie Mercury’s partner Jim Hutton – a more minor (and much less interesting) role than the one he would go on to play. ‘I remember reading about Paul Prenter, Freddie’s manager and one-time lover, and thinking, “That’s a great part for whoever’s going to get it,” but I’d already been approached for the role of Jim,’ he explains. ‘The phone call came through from my agent and it was like, “It’s not going to work out for Jim Hutton… [ feigns disappointment] but they want you to play Paul Prenter.” That’s a Simon Cowell thing to do, isn’t it? I felt like I’d been X-factored. Without the soundtrack. That’s where Coldplay usually kicks in.
‘I’ve never been driven by awards or accolades, but by characters, and they’re harder to come by these days,’ he reflects. ‘I drive my team crazy, sometimes. I’m like, “This is great, but I don’t get it.” Then they spend a lot of time convincing me I should still meet the producers.’
One of four children, brought up in Killiney, County Dublin, by his father, the CEO of a computer company, and mother, a housewife, Leech is the only actor in his close-knit family. Do they roll out the red carpet when he goes home, then? ‘No!’ he says, laughing. ‘I’m the handyman kid – I walk into the house and my mum’s like, “That light has been causing trouble; there’s a tile
loose over here.” I kind of like that, though. In our local pub, it’s as if I never left.’
I’m surprised when he tells me that his move to LA from London (where he’d been based for 12 years) may have coincided with the end of Downton, but was prompted by something else entirely. His best friend and housemate of five years, John Dineen, who was also Michelle Dockery’s fiancé, passed away in December 2015 after a long illness. ‘After that, I just wanted to break out of London and be somewhere else,’ he says, softly. ‘Those who lived with him and were close friends called him Dino and often the thing we would say is, “What would Dino do?” So I thought, “What would Dino do?” and I came out here.’
It wasn’t until Leech met his now wife, American actress Jessica Blair Herman, on the dancefloor at an industry party in 2016, that he realised the relocation to LA would be
‘I’VE NEVER BEEN DRIVEN BY AWARDS OR ACCOLADES, BUT BY CHARACTERS’
a permanent one. ‘There was this moment when we were chatting, just the two of us, and this guy walked past, really hammered, and said: “This – this is what I want. How long have you been married?” Without missing a beat, Jess replied, “Six years,” and started making up this story. I just looked at her, giving this guy marriage advice, and thought, “She’s pretty cool.”’
They married in January this year at a ranch in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, and were shocked when ‘it peed rain’, he says, grabbing his phone to show me pictures. ‘We had blankets and heaters around, but it was so wet, Jess had to be carried down the aisle by the groomsmen!’ The scheduled band wasn’t able to play, so it was handy that a couple of former Glee stars, Darren Criss and Lea Michele, were in attendance. ‘People were drinking hot toddies when Darren started playing All You Need Is Love, and everyone joined in.’
Already parents to a rescue dog, Lucky, Leech is frank about the fact that the couple see children in the picture eventually, too. ‘I’d love four. I think last time I said that to Jess, she said, “Are they coming out of your womb?” So I don’t think that’s going to happen, but we definitely do want a family.’
As someone who likes his pubs and his pints, I wonder if he’s embraced the lifestyle overhaul the land of green juices and morning hikes often inspires. ‘I’m definitely healthier here. I needed to get myself fitter,’ he says. ‘There’s no point whinging about it – you just get on with it. Bohemian Rhapsody was an incentive to slim down, because I’d generally been up for parts where I was the larger friend.’
I find that hard to believe. The man sitting before me with a svelte figure and cheeky smile looks no different to the one we’ve grown to love on our screens over the past decade. ‘Oh, in Downton, I got fat towards the end!’ he laughs. ‘I wasn’t taking care of myself. When Branson came back from Boston in series six? It looks like he had to leave because he ate it!’
I laugh, but then feel guilty. ‘It’s funny!’ he reassures me. ‘It’s probably the only safe thing we can do these days. I can just imagine the headline: “Allen Leech fat shames… himself”.’
Downton Abbey is released in cinemas on 13th September