NewsBite

Elizabeth McGovern has gone from Downton Abbey to Aussie passion project The Chaperone

Hollywood actor Elizabeth McGovern, a star of Downton Abbey, has vowed to work her fingers to the bone to promote her latest film, an Aussie passion project.

Downtown Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern in Sydney to promote The Chaperone. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts
Downtown Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern in Sydney to promote The Chaperone. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

Hollywood actor Elizabeth McGovern has vowed to work her fingers to the bone to promote her latest film.

“I would work until I dropped dead to get people out because it is a film I am really proud of,” she told Confidential.

Elizabeth McGovern in The Chaperone. Picture: Karin Catt/Courtesy of PBS Distribution
Elizabeth McGovern in The Chaperone. Picture: Karin Catt/Courtesy of PBS Distribution

MORE ENTERTAINMENT:

One thing NOT to say to Hamish Blake about his wife Zoe

Pia Miller, fiance split 18 months after engagement

Designer lauds Bishop for ‘risky’ $1299 gown

McGovern is in Australia to promote low-budget period film The Chaperone, a movie she calls her “passion project”, in that she both stars in it and has a producer credit too.

The Chaperone, set in the 1920s, tells the story of a middle-aged Kansas woman whose life is changed forever when she accompanies young dancer Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) to New York to embark on a career in film.

Elizabeth McGovern at the US premiere of The Chaperone in Los Angeles, California. Picture: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
Elizabeth McGovern at the US premiere of The Chaperone in Los Angeles, California. Picture: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images

The story explores sexuality at a time when women had only just been given the vote.

“There’s still very much a slut-shaming sort of thing that we grow up with,” she said.

“So for me, I could really relate to Norma’s story, in that she is feeling it is somehow her fault that her marriage is sexless but she discovers she can create her own happiness and write her own life story.”

Linking the story to today’s climate of MeToo and equality more broadly, she added: “To me it’s relevant to the dialogue we are having today about sexuality and sexual abuse and the long-term damage it can cause, but also this idea that there is nothing shameful about a woman’s sexual drive. But what I love also is it’s not a heavy-handed ‘message’ movie. It is just an entertaining story.”

McGovern as Cora, Countess Of Grantham, in Downton Abbey.
McGovern as Cora, Countess Of Grantham, in Downton Abbey.

McGovern got her break with 1980s Ordinary People and was nominated for an Academy Award for 1981’s Ragtime. Her other film credits include The House Of Mirth, Clash Of The Titans, The Handmaid’s Tale and Once Upon A Time In America.

And she will reprise the role of Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham, in hit TV drama Downton Abbey, for the upcoming feature film.

“It is for the fans,” she said. “It is business as usual in the house.

“We are not jumping forward in time all that much. All the characters they love are going to be saying all the things they love to hear them say. That is as much as I can tell you.”

McGovern with Hugh Bonneville, playing Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in Downton Abbey.
McGovern with Hugh Bonneville, playing Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in Downton Abbey.

Next up for McGovern is the War Of The Worlds TV series with Gabriel Byrne, currently in shooting.

“I got the script and I knew it was aliens invading and I thought, ‘this is not for me’. But I read it and it was pretty good. When they said Gabriel Byrne was in it, I thought that was interesting. And then they said I was going to wear really tight pants and have a gun and I said, ‘Where do I sign?’”

The Chaperone is in cinemas nationally from April 25.

McGovern in Downton Abbey.
McGovern in Downton Abbey.

Originally published as Elizabeth McGovern has gone from Downton Abbey to Aussie passion project The Chaperone

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/confidential/elizabeth-mcgovern-has-gone-from-downton-abbey-to-aussie-passion-project-the-chaperone/news-story/3eed54d8d169de5edc29263a86a7f6ac