Michelle Dockery on saying goodbye to Downton Abbey and embracing a new era

Don’t expect Michelle Dockery to be visiting Highclere Castle, the stately home setting for the family seat of her Downton Abbey character, Lady Mary, anytime soon. Though the actor has spent 52 episodes and three movies filming there over 15 years since the show became a national institution, now that the saga comes to a definitive close with the final film, Dockery is keen to open a new, as yet unknown, chapter. “It was our home as characters, but it was also where we went to work. It will be good to get some distance from it, I think,” she laughs when asked if she’ll now have a lifetime pass to the country pile that welcomes 90,000 Downton fans a year. Not many people return to their old offices after moving on from a job, she points out. I’m speaking to her shortly after High Life’s cover shoot at the iconic Whiteley building in Queensway, West London. It now houses new luxury apartments, but architecturally, it neatly dates back to the era when season one of Downton began.

Since being cast in 2010 as elegant Lady Mary, the eldest daughter of Lord Crawley, Dockery has become a national treasure, an award winner and a movie star. On screen she navigated an on-off swoony romance with Dan Stevens’ Matthew, widowhood (which sadly mirrored her real life when her fiancé John Dineen tragically died of cancer), World War I and domestic shenanigans both below and above stairs. Now, as Downton closes its heavy oak doors for the last time in a bow-out feature film, Lady Mary discovers the special social scorn reserved for women in the wake of a divorce from her second husband Henry Talbot, as Lord Crawley struggles with handing over the reins of the stately home to her.

Meanwhile, two of the beloved staff prepare for retirement, an American lothario (Alessandro Nivola) offers a seductive diversion, Paul Giamatti’s hopeless uncle Harold returns, and snobbery is put under the microscope at the annual country fair. “As a modern woman it took me a minute to get my head around how huge a deal being divorced would have been, with her being completely ostracised from society,” Dockery explains. “We’ve seen that before with Mary – in the early days with a Turkish diplomat and then later on when she’s having a relationship with someone who is already engaged. But this time around, it’s an even bigger threat because she’s about to become the woman of the house. But that main story is a bit of a metaphor for the whole household facing the unknown. The world is rapidly changing around them, moving into the 1930s. The whole theme of the film is about passing the baton on. So even though it’s the end, it’s the beginning. It’s a new era.”

Filming characters having to say goodbye as the cast said their own farewells was certainly poignant, she admits. Even if they were not required on set, the cast attended on filming days when it was each character’s last scene. “We really tried to make it work in the schedule so that we could show up for each other. It was life imitating art in lots of ways. We consciously relished every moment, knowing that this would be the last time we’re filming in this room, or the last moments that you’re filming with your co-star.”

Dockery’s last moments on set were those during the end credits: a most final exit. But before she departed she’d filmed the emotional closing of the film which, no spoilers, nods to cherished characters of the past six series. Fans will need their tissues, she promises, having sniffled through two screenings herself already. “When we shot it, they played the music from when Mary and Matthew are at the train station in series two, and she gives him the little dog toy. Mary isn’t a character that shows a huge amount of emotion. But underneath, I was really holding back the tears, you know?” Production designer Donal Woods also ensured she had a special departing keepsake from the show connected to that fan favourite moment: the lucky dog charm dog that she gives to Matthew as he goes off to war. “To have that tiny, little prop was very special. I can’t think of a better one, really, for the whole thing. I didn’t take anything else – there’s part of me that feels like it’s right to leave them behind, in that time.”

She may have resisted Mary’s opulent costumes and jewels but she won’t be leaving behind the friendships she made during a show that she describes as completely changing her life. “I’m incredibly grateful for it and the opportunities it’s brought, both in my career and in the relationships that I’ve formed. Lady Mary will always be a part of me and to be known for something that is so loved – there’s no bad thing about that,” she smiles. “Laura Carmichael [who plays Lady Edith] is one of my best mates and was a beautiful bridesmaid at my wedding [to producer Jasper Waller-Bridge in 2023]. And even though he’s all the way over in LA, Allen Leech [Tom Branson] and I speak a lot. There are WhatsApp groups. We send each other memes and funny things. Hugh [Bonneville] sent something to us recently, which was that Chris Martin wanted to be in Downton.” The cast will enjoy another finale together as they promote the film, which will involve “staying in the same hotel, having a nice meal, chatting about life”. The media ‘circus’ around them is not reality, she stresses. “No one’s really changed. It’s like it always was, that’s what I love about it.”

With a regular Downton filming schedule now no longer part of her life, Dockery is relishing the ability to be open to any opportunity that comes her way for an incoming adventure. “I’m so excited for this next chapter, whatever that will look like,” she says. “It’s probably the thing that used to be daunting when I was in my 20s and 30s. But going into my 40s it feels like the roles are slightly shifting. They’re getting really interesting. I don’t quite know what’s around the corner. But actually the more I hold it lightly, the more interesting it becomes.” A Sopranos superfan who has watched the show six times, she’s open to doing TV again, more movies (she begins filming West the Road with Imelda Staunton in Ireland later this year) and especially theatre, having learned her trade at the Guildhall drama school and then at the National Theatre. It was that grounding that helped the Essex native nail Lady Mary’s crystal-cut tone and convincing Stateside twangs (as seen in Flight Risk and Godless). “At drama school they drummed into you the importance of the RP accent, but my Essex accent was never hugely strong. My mum went to finishing school and was always pulling us up on our pronunciation. And growing up, I was always doing funny voices and American accents.”

Though she can sound like an American, Dockery isn’t drawn to moving to Hollywood, preferring to dip into the States for projects. “I’ve never felt a need to live there,” she says. “I love London too much. I just miss my tea and the seasons.” Currently enamoured with her five-year old lurcher, Alfie, she likes dog-walking in the parks and on river trails near her West London home – and counting down to Christmas: “It’s the best time in London – when everything’s lit up and all the markets are on. I tend to be very happy when a job works out so that I end up at home at Christmas.”

Who knows where her next job takes her for the Yuletide season – she name checks Olivia Colman and Cristin Milioti as performances she’s admired recently and says she’d like to write a musical – but Dockery is aware that Downton has been a singular experience, one that carried her from the age of 26 to 43 and has shaped and taught her. “I think I’ve learned to just let things happen naturally,” she muses. “Hold things lightly, and let them just take their course.” Lady Mary would no doubt approve.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is in UK cinemas from 12 September; Downton Abbey, series 6, Downton Abbey, the film, and Downton Abbey: A New Era are showing on board now