Attention Downton Abbey fans – here’s the second half of our exclusive interview with Matt Barber (Atticus Aldridge) in advance of this week’s Christmas Special.
This interview was conducted during Downton Abbey’s UK airing – we’re bringing it back for the American crowd now that the PBS season is done!
Yesterday, we brought you the first half of our interview with Matt Barber, who plays Downton Abbey’s newest Crawley in-law, Atticus Aldridge. In part one, Matt discussed the Downton season finale and his character’s stag night scandal, marginalism in upper class 1920s society as the son of the Jewish Lord Sinderby, and how Atticus and Rose’s love story mirrors his own.
In the second instalment, Matt theorises about how Atticus would handle World War II, we learn a little about what it’s like to wear Downton’s beautiful costumes, and we even a drag few words out of him about the Christmas episode! The Aldridge family will play a major part in this year’s special, as the Crawleys will be visiting Rose and her new family at a castle rented by Lord Sinderby in Northumberland.
I’m sure we can’t really confirm anything today about what will happen in season 6, but if we were to follow Atticus and Rose’s story, what issues do you imagine them encountering from here on out?
I genuinely don’t know, because I have no idea what they’ll do in terms of the timing for the season. If you look back at the last five seasons, they’ve all dealt with both different time spans within the series and time jumps between the seasons. So in all honesty, until I’ve seen that I have absolutely no idea.
It was the 1920s in season 5 and we saw the first tiny hints of the conflict – anti-Semitism, mentions of Hitler and the Brownshirts – that we know, historically, will eventually lead to WWII. Now, we’re not predicting a 15-year time jump for Downton, but looking ahead in Atticus’ life, if he’d be in his mid-thirties at the start of the Second World War, do you think that he would go off to fight?
Yeah, absolutely. I imagine he would. The Second World War isn’t looming yet, because we’re too early for it. They’re just not aware of it – as a modern audience we look back and go “oh there’s this Jewish discrimination problem building” and that’s massively relevant, but’s just not in 1924, to the English at least. For us now, with news stories breaking on Twitter, on the internet or whatever, we know how quickly things are happening in terms of escalation. But back then, with newspapers and the wireless being your only access to news, awareness will take a lot longer. There’s a lack of access to breaking news.
On the potential of WWII: ‘When the walls come crashing down, it would be interesting to see what actually happens and how he deals with that.’
Looking at the relative ages of characters in Downton, I don’t know how you’d get another 15 years, especially in a series, so I think it’s unlikely to deal with the Second World War, but I would be fascinated to work with that character, that background and this sort of storyline as it’s been set up, in that context. Again, it’s like I was talking about earlier on with getting a character like this, who’s dealt with this stuff throughout his life, and he’s always dealt well with it and he’s always kind of come out on top. When the walls come crashing down, it would be really interesting to see what actually happens and how he deals with that. Whether or not I’ll get a chance to do that on Downton I don’t know!
You’ll be appearing in this year’s Downton Abbey Christmas Special. Is there anything at all you can can tell me about that? Is it going to be a happy ending, a sad ending?
I definitely can’t! I’m sure I can’t tell you that! I think the one thing I can tell you is that you should watch it because it’ll be very good.
Fair enough! One thing that has been mentioned is that this year’s episode is actually set at Christmas within the show, unlike some of the previous Christmas Specials. Is that correct?
Some of it is at Christmas, yes.
These specials are pretty unpredictable – sometimes you’ll get a beautiful garden party and sometimes you’ll get a dramatic death – so who can tell?!
Yes, exactly! And I think that’s why it’s worth watching as well, because you just don’t know what’s going to happen! But it’s a really good one. A really, really good one, and great fun to shoot. A really nice load of people.
You’d known a couple of the cast members prior to booking Downton Abbey, including working pretty closely with Michelle Dockery [Mary]. How was it to come on set and work with these people whose stars have risen through the show?
Laura Carmichael [Edith] was at drama school with me, we were in the same class. This was the first time I’ve ever worked with her professionally and that was awesome because she’s just a mate. I had only ever known her as a mate because we had never really worked together, so that was cool. Really really good fun. Just turning up and having her be there was a bit like turning up at a new school and an old friend being there, so it makes everything a lot easier.
And then Michelle, we worked together for quite a long time on this show we did [Pygmalion at The Old Vic] that Peter Hall directed. We got to know each other really well and had a great time, so it was awesome working with her again, and spending time with her as well. One thing that happens as an actor is that you move from job to job and you get very close to people very quickly, and then everybody disappears off and goes onto the next thing, and you get close to another group of people very quickly and then everyone disappears off. And so it’s fantastic coming back around and working with people again, especially people like Michelle.
When I worked with her previously it was just obvious how special she was, and nothing’s changed. She’s only kind of moved on to bigger and better things. I mean, she was doing amazingly the first time I worked with her, but coming around and working with someone like that again it makes you feel – honestly it’s quite a matter of pride because it makes me feel like I’m doing something right. Because you can see what they’re doing and if you’re coming back to that then that’s a pretty good thing!
On the next page: Getting into character with those amazing costumes, and how Matt’s real proposal affected his on-screen one!
Let’s talk clothes. Are your costumes replicas, or sourced original pieces?
For example, a lot of the girls’ dresses are made, because you’re not going to notice the difference between one white tie coat and another white tie coat as long as they fit really well, and everything is obviously re-tailored for everybody who wears it. But you’re not going to notice much difference between one dinner jacket and another, or one tweed suit and another, whereas for the girls, it was such an important thing at that time for them to be in perpetually new clothes. I was always amazed that you come on set for another day of shooting and they’re in another new dress. It’s very beautiful.
What was it like, learning to naturally embody every element of Downton Abbey’s upper class society – the training in accent, behaviour, dining, dressing? Did you find it easy to switch in and out of character?
One of the tricky things about it is that there are these different storylines going on and with the divide between upstairs and downstairs, they different locations, which means that it’s quite a bitty schedule. Staying on top of your story and the progress through it is pretty complicated – because you’re seeing different people’s storylines, you’re not always dealing with the full content of your story. You kind of move from moment to moment in their lives, so there’s a lot of stuff to fill in and imply to make sure that it progresses like it should.
‘…basically, as long as you kind of think that you’re meeting the Queen, and behave as you would if you were meeting her, you’re pretty safe.’
In terms of kind of fitting into the period, it’s funny – I suspect it’s the same with girls putting on corsets. As a guy at that period, you put on a shirt that basically feels like the front, the collars and and the cuffs are made of wood, and that immediately makes you stand up pretty straight and talk slightly differently. Then basically, as long as you kind of think that you’re meeting the Queen, and behave as you would if you were meeting her, you’re pretty safe.
I wondered if they could do some wardrobe tricks, use different fabrics or something, to make the outfits more wearable, but perhaps it wouldn’t feel as authentic for the actors? It must help inform the performance.
The only trick to make it more comfortable is that it’s a bit more comfortable by the end of the day, because you’ve been in it for a day of filming. And then the next day you’ll turn up again and if you’re filming something that’s set the same evening, you’re in white tie for two or three days. At the end of the first day it’s like “Oh phew, I’ve kind of worn this in a bit.” You turn up the next day and again it’s wooden and starched! And the starch is so strong that pushing studs through the holes, you literally have to get someone to help you put the clothes on.
It makes you really appreciate why people needed valets at that time, because you can’t do it yourself. You can’t put one of those collars on by yourself. It’s too fiddly to get the studs in and too fiddly to do it all up. You essentially need two hands on it from the other direction. And if a valet comes at the end of a time period where clothes are getting more simple, you begin to genuinely understand why they needed help dressing!
Finally, what’s been your favorite moment of playing Atticus so far?
Probably proposing to Rose, because it’s just such a lovely scene, and because it’s a really interesting scene to play as well. There’s so much to happen in such a short space of time – they have a snatched couple of minutes in which, for him, to essentially ask the biggest question of his life. What I didn’t know until I actually proposed to someone is that it is literally the most terrifying moment of your life.
Even knowing, when I proposed in real life, I knew I was proposing to the person that I wanted to, and will, spend the rest of my life with – and I knew that so much, because I had never actually thought that would be possible, in all honesty. So there’s absolutely no element of doubt, it’s the most exciting thing in the world, and it’s absolutely brilliant, until the moment when you’re literally about to ask someone, and it’s like the bottom slightly falls out of your world.
It’s the most exposed and most terrifying thing ever. So again, that’s only something I know about through personal experience. I genuinely would not have known that unless I’d actually done it myself, unless I’d done it to the person that it was right for me to do it to. And so it’s such a lovely scene anyway, but then because of the circumstances and the way the scene is written, it’s such an exciting thing to act. Exposed and frantic and positive and excitable – but massively anxious and nervy.
I have to say I really lucked out acting opposite Lily James. She’s absolutely brilliant and I think a lot of the on screen chemistry is off screen as well. We got on really well and she’s a really exciting actress to work with.
Find Matt at @MattJLBarber on Twitter.
The two-hour Downton Abbey Christmas Special premieres this Thursday, December 25, at 9 p.m. on ITV.