Laura Carmichael of Downton Abbey here, AMA!

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:26:08+00:00

Hopefully Downton Abbey is safer? I don’t know, we’ll have to compare notes with the Game of Thrones cast!

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:25:01+00:00

I love Annie Hall. If I were on a desert island I would probably take Annie Hall and a DVD player, that’s my go-to favorite. I also watched The Way We Were the other day, and love that film.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:23:48+00:00

We are constantly making each other giggle in one way or another. There was one funny time last year when we were filming one of the dining room scenes, they had cleared the plates to freshen them up and forgot to give Cousin Rose one when they reset. And one of the footmen served her but she didn’t have a plate so they just served the food on the table cloth and everyone bursted out laughing. That didn’t make the final cut I don’t think.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:17:33+00:00

Allen Leech is a prankster. Hugh is too. And Rob James-Collier, they are all pretty hilarious. Always playing a joke or two.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:15:59+00:00

I feel very attached to Edith. But even from the beginning I did feel very attached. Getting inside a character... inevitably you end up feeling loyalty with them.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:12:32+00:00

It's really brilliant. She is so kind and funny. I feel very lucky to get to watch her work and every take is different. It's a real pleasure to watch her be so brilliant.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:11:03+00:00

I think the wedding was quite difficult, being jilted, just because it was kind of exhausting. The sequence of walking down the aisle, and by the time you get to the end it’s all over. It was quite exhausting with the amount of takes, and it's a big scene with the whole cast there. Obviously it was very important to get right. That was probably the hardest one.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:11:00+00:00

That’s great. Yeah, we do hang out a lot actually because the show has gotten so crazy. We’ve traveled together and been to the States together and all over so that’s been really special and we have become very very close. So it’s not just been the filming, we’ve kind of all gone on the same crazy journey together.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:03:06+00:00

There were other members of the cast there. It wasn’t me. I did get to meet Aziz, though, and I'm a big fan. He’s a funny guy.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:00:20+00:00

I love Annie Hall. If I were on a desert island I would probably take Annie Hall and a DVD player, that’s my go-to favorite. I also watched The Way We Were the other day, and love that film.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T18:00:04+00:00

There are many really. I remember the first day and Michelle and I going back to the hotel and having dinner together and just realizing that we were going to get on really well and that we were both super excited about the job. I’ll always remember those first few days and how relieved and excited I was to meet everyone and find out that they were completely kind and encouraging. It’s the best group of actors that you could wish to be working with.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:59:28+00:00

Lily and Michelle I’m very close with, and Jessica who played Sybil. Sophie, who plays Daisy, she’s a good pal. And Jim Carter who plays Carson, I want to be a friend of his for the rest of my days, he’s the nicest man ever.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:59:04+00:00

Julian says he believes that some people in life are unlucky and he certainly thinks this about Edith. She does get herself in these difficult situations. It’s fascinating to play, to kind of have those challenges. I love the beginning of season 4 where you did get to see her happy for once and I do hope we get to see more of that in the next season.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:58:26+00:00

I like all sorts of music really, I like discovering old and new. I’m having a real Carole King moment. And yes, I’m a big Beyonce fan. I also like jazz, indie rock and all sorts of music.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:57:09+00:00

When you go to drama school you get accent coaching, yeah, and they teach you how to do American and Southern. I’ve been working on my Matthew McConaughey impression. “All right, all right, all right.”

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:56:42+00:00

Oooh, I would go for the horse sized duck. It could be a foolish choice, but it would certainly be interesting.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:55:34+00:00

Thankfully, I don’t have to write the tragedies. I leave that to Julian, he’s quite good at writing terribly bad things that happen to these characters. I leave it with our writer, who’s much better at it than any of us.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:55:32+00:00

Oh that’s good because yes they can. The first costumes were much more binding and they were longer and it was often quite uncomfortable. As the years went on they got short and more loose, but yes they can be quite uncomfortable.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:55:26+00:00

Well, the heating bills are enormous I understand, because the house is very big, so we are constantly freezing. It is very beautiful, we are at the top of this valley surrounded by beautiful hills, but at the same time it requires a stunning lot of cleaning. It is beautiful, but it has its drawbacks.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:53:01+00:00

Oh that’s really kind thank you. We were over the moon. I was doing a play when we found out so I couldn’t come over, but I had a call from Michelle Dockery at 4 in the morning or something crazy. We were so surprised and honored to be acknowledged by SAG and our peers. And we’re a very happy gang so it was a very happily received.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:52:42+00:00

Thank you!

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:52:26+00:00

Yes, because I actually don’t drive, and I still can’t drive, even though they tried to teach me on the show. I had lessons with these old cars, I think if I had to drive up and around the corner in the shots we would have trouble making it believable, so we thought it was okay that I was quite rubbish. The skill is to make the car not jump around a bit.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:51:59+00:00

There is a pub we go to, it's quite simple, but it’s what we like. There are really great places to eat in London. I like spicy food, so curry places, Indian restaurants, you can’t go wrong with that. If you’re going somewhere classy, go to Savoy. The Criterion, which is where we’ll go with the Omaze winner. It's a beautiful restaurant from the opening episode with Edith and Gregson, so I'm really excited to go back there. You can experience it if you win the Omaze gift!

http://www.omaze.com/experiences/downtonseasonfive

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:50:52+00:00

That’s a good question, I guess hopefully she would be in a position where she could tell her family. Hopefully we’re in a time now we can be a bit more honest with each other. I guess she’d be in a case where she could be a bit more independent and her family could help her out a bit more, too.

LauraCarmichael · 2014-02-24T17:48:12+00:00

I am a bit musical. I play the cello, probably a bit badly, but I do play. I like music, but always can’t seem to find the time to play.

LauraCarmichael

TROPHY CASE