Season 3 character updates - SPOILERS

Source: Season 3 Press Kit 

Joanne Froggatt talks season 3 - SPOILERS

(Source: Season 3 Press Kit)

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOANNE FROGGATT

Should Julian Fellowes ever decide to write a spin-off series from Downton Abbey, Joanne Froggatt already has one idea. “Anna Bates Investigates! Anna absolutely knows that Bates wouldn't have done something like kill his wife, and she sees it as her duty to make sure the truth comes out.”

At the beginning of the new series, Anna’s career is on the up, but her main concern is still dealing with the emotional anguish of having her husband in prison.

“We start off with her coming to terms with the fact that Mr Bates is incarcerated. She’s trying to just carry on with her own job, trying to be strong, but she’s also trying to find out more information and see if she can gather any evidence to prove his innocence.” Not for a minute, says Froggatt, has Anna questioned her husband’s blamelessness. That makes her all the more determined to prove it to the rest of the world.
“Obviously she believes in him 100% which is the nice bit about it. So she sees it as her duty to make sure that the truth comes out.” But standing up for her husband in the face of both hostility and indifference takes its toll. “You see her become a bit more of a woman, because things get tough. You see her really struggle with the fact that Mr Bates is not around. And you see her almost lose her positivity a bit - which we’ve never seen before. I think it’s nice to see her really strained, actually - because that's how you'd be. That kind of positivity is difficult to keep up in the face of everything. She has to battle.

”Anna’s time in London, at the prison and on the trail of the truth has at least meant that Froggatt, who in her real life is a fashion fanatic, finally gets to wear something other than the same old pinny. “It's nice to have a change, certainly. I do get to go out in my civvies, which is nice. Then again it’s still a lot of long skirts, a nice blouse, possibly a brown coat and often a hat – so not exactly pushing the boundaries! But at one point I do get to wear one of Lady Mary’s dresses for a special occasion.”

It’s the fashions that Froggatt would most like to teleport from the 1920s to modern life.

“Some of the clothes are really beautiful, I think. Not necessarily for below stairs characters, but I love the period for fashion, I think it's absolutely gorgeous. Fashion does seem to have a 20s comeback every few seasons, and I completely see why. It's a very feminine look, the fabrics and the shapes are very pretty and distinctive. It’s just a shame we girls below stairs don’t get to wear them more often!”

Froggatt has been to the US four times in the last year, so she’s had ample chance to sample the Downton Abbey effect as it has grown.

“I went over in February 2011 for some meetings and back then people in the industry had heard of it, although the first series was just being aired at that time. Even then there was a definite buzz about it. But about six months later I went out again and met people, and everybody seemed to have seen it. And then Michelle [Dockery] and I went out for the Emmys - and it was incredible. At all the pre-Emmy parties everybody was saying, ‘We love your show.’ I just wasn't expecting that. I was expecting people to go, ‘Oh, who are they, and what are they doing here?’ or just to feel like I was on the edge of things looking in. But we felt really accepted, and what’s more, accepted amongst our peers, which was really amazing.”
But of course Froggatt looked a little different at the awards ceremonies compared to her dowdy Downton Abbey look.

“People don't recognize me. When Michelle and I were out for the Emmys, people would come up and go, ‘Lady Mary!’ straight away. Then they'd look at me and go, ‘Oh, oh, you're… Anna?’ Mind you, if they’re saying that I look so different I suppose that’s a good thing.”

Filming Downton Abbey takes up a sizeable chunk of its stars’ year – series three took seven months. Even so, Froggatt has managed to squeeze in three film roles that could hardly be further from the 1920s or Anna Bates.

“One's called UWantMe2KillHim, a British feature film, one’s called Filth with James McAvoy and Jamie Bell, and then I'm doing another one at the moment with Eddie Marsan called Still Life. What I will tell you is that only one of them involves me doing any investigating!”

Joanne Froggatt at Arqiva British Academy Television

Joanne Froggatt poses in front of the winners boards at The 2012 Arqiva British Academy Television Awards at the Royal Festival Hall on May 27, 2012 in London, England.

Joanne's filming a new movie, Filth, in Scotland with James McAvoy.

Photos: Tim Whitby

Joanne Froggatt in People

Five things to learn about Joanne:

1. She grew up on a farm.
Froggatt, 31, grew up on a small farm in north Yorkshire, near the English border with Scotland, where she helped with the chores and played on the desolate landscape with her older brother.

"My dad had a flock of sheep, which he used to milk, and then my mum used to make cheese and yogurt out of the sheep's milk and sell it. It was kind of an unusual upbringing really," she says. "It's very kind of Wuthering Heights where my parents house is, moors and deserted, really. It's very wild and mystic. When the wind is going and the rain is lashing down, there's something so romantic about the whole place."

2. She's getting married.
Fiancé James Cannon runs his own I.T. company, and is understanding of the demands of Froggatt's show-biz career. The couple are set to marry later this year, and Froggatt has been frantically balancing wedding planning with filming the show and her upcomings movies, Filth (with James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent) and the indie Still Life.

"But this is what you hope for, really – you've just got to take these times and enjoy them and grasp them by the horns and go with it because there will be quiet times again in the future," she says. "But I'm enjoying every minute of it at the moment."

3. The Downton Abbey cast get along famously

Don't confuse the class divide on the show with what happens once the cameras stop rolling. The cast members "get along like a house on fire," Froggatt says.

"There's definitely been a few nights on the town with a bit of dancing involved," she says.

4. She got an up-close look at the much-anticipated dramatic fireworks between newcomer Shirley MacLaine and Maggie Smith.
"This scene I was in, there's an amazing little conversation between the two of them, a sort of snipey conversation," Frogatt says. "It was like watching these two legends at work. It was one of the most special days I think I've ever had on set. It was magical."

5. Anna Bates will come into her own.
Season 3 doesn't air in the United States until January, but Froggatt offers a sneak peek.

"You do see her grow up that little bit more, and she's a married lady now, she's Mrs. Bates. She moves in to a more senior position in the house and she kind of becomes a woman," Froggatt says. "And obviously her and Mr. Bates are having their turmoils again, so she's fighting to free her man as well."

Source: People

Behind the Scenes - Season 3 - SPOILERS

Updated 3/14/12

Shirley MacLaine is pictured filming "Downton Abbey" on February 21, 2012 in London, UK. The 77-year-old actress will be playing Martha Levinson, the mother of Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) in the third season.

Photos by FameFlynet Pictures




More Spoiler News for Season 3

A new footman is coming to Downton Abbey ... one who is very closely connected to O'Brien.
With Thomas likely to become Lord Grantham's valet now that Bates is imprisoned, Downton hires a new footman named Alfred.
Digital Spy reports that Matt Milne (War Horse) will join the cast in Season 3 as Alfred, who also happens to be O'Brien's nephew!

Source: Wetpaint.com



3/9/12

Behind the scenes of the wedding in Season 3:

The cast of Downton Abbey gathered in Oxfordshire, England on March 5th to film the much talked-about wedding scene between Mary and Matthew (cousins, but lovers) for season three.  From the looks of things on the set, it appears that nuptials went on as planned.
Source: socialitelife.com

Photos by FameFlynet Pictures	Is that Shirley MacLaine in that car? I believe so! :)

Episode Stills - Season 1