“I cry every time I watch it,” says Michelle Dockery.
“It was an emotional one.”
Warning: This article contains spoilers forDownton Abbey: A New Era.
Jaap Buitendijk/Focus Features
But just how emotional was performing that scene?
“It’s been 12 years, so it was quite a moment,” Dockery tells EW.
“I was dreading [the scene], actually,” she reveals.
That made me almost burst into tears every five minutes."
After the emotional turmoil of filming the farewell scene, the cast toasted Smith with champagne.
“That felt like the right way to end it,” adds Dockery.
“I still can’t quite believe it.”
“It didn’t feel quite as final in the first film.”
“They’re unearthing Violet’s past and this potential affair that she had,” she says.
“Then you find out she resisted him and was loyal to Robert’s father.
Mary is similarly going through this moment with Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy).
She’s attracted to him and very flattered by his advances, but she resists him.
She’s quite proud of herself that she manages to resist him.
It’s very much ‘like grandmother, like granddaughter.’
There’s lots of echoes of Violet in Mary in this film.”
Downton Abbey: A New Erais in theaters now.
Want more movie news?
