Downton Abbey’s New Star, Tuppence Middleton, Says Her Character ‘Possibly Has A Little Love Story With Someone’

If you don’t know Tuppence Middleton’s name, you’ve certainly seen her face. Whether playing an incestuous society beauty in acclaimed BBC drama War & Peace or a bleach-haired Icelandic DJ in Netflix’s sci-fi epic Sense8, she has been all over our screens, even if you haven’t realised it yet. This week, though, her fame is set to reach a whole new level, with the long- awaited release of the Downton Abbey film. A cosily beloved institution at home in Britain, the aristos-and-servants drama was also a smash hit in the US during its six seasons, which ended in 2015. Buzz for the film has been frenzied: advance ticket sales have broken records.

Tuppence – named after her grandmother’s childhood nickname for her mother – stars as Lucy, a servant to Imelda Staunton’s Lady Bagshaw (Imelda is the real-life wife of Jim Carter, aka Mr Carson, the butler.) Joining a cast that have mostly worked together for a decade, including Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Joanne Froggatt and, of course, the formidable Dame Maggie Smith, was a daunting prospect. ‘It didn’t really hit me until we had the read-through,’ admits the 32-year-old. ‘We did it in a warehouse space, at some kind of studio, and they needed it to be so big because there were just so many people. I’m quite short-sighted: I could barely see across the table.’ She admits that this may have been a positive. ‘I would have been quite intimidated otherwise, with all of these faces that I’ve grown up watching and loving.’ But she had little to worry about. ‘They made all of us newbies feel a part of the family,’ she explains. ‘I didn’t feel at all isolated, or that it was cliquey.

Whispers of a Downton film were first heard in 2016, not long after creator and writer Julian Fellowes neatly wrapped the ITV programme in an elegant bow. Fans missed the Granthams and the small army of staff working diligently downstairs, leading to a standalone story set in 1927 that sees royal visitors show up at the house. ‘There were lots of things going on at that time which had a huge influence on the way we live today,’ says Tuppence.

Her character is rumoured to share a romantic storyline with widower Branson. ‘She possibly has a little love story with someone,’ she teases. She also reveals of her character’s relationship with Lady Bagshawe, ‘They have a special connection. Lucy has the ability to float between both worlds. It’s more intimate than just waiting on them. You see everything!’ Downton fans will recall the secrets that staff often observe. Who could forget the charming Mr Pamuk, who died while in flagrante with Lady Mary and had to be shuffled back to his own bed by her maid?

Tuppence, who grew up in Somerset, discovered acting while at school in Bristol. ‘I felt quite self-conscious and shy,’ she recalls. ‘But I still loved it. It was a weird contradiction. I couldn’t stop myself. I liked the challenge. And still today, if a project scares me, then I have to do it, I have to challenge myself to say, “Why am I scared?” She has worked steadily since leaving drama school, starting with small parts in series such as Bones and New Tricks. She has done plenty of period dramas (The Current War, Dickensian and War & Peace) but that didn’t make her a dead cert for Downton: she faced competition even from her own circles.

‘It’s quite a small world,’ she explains. ‘You check in when you arrive for an audition and sometimes you can see five of your friends there too. You think, “Oh, they’re brilliant, they’re going to get it.” It’s lovely to be going through the same thing, but also it means you rarely think it’s in the bag.’

Tuppence has also found herself reading more interesting scripts in recent years – thanks, she says, to something actresses have traditionally worried about: age. ‘As soon as you get into your thirties, something about that starts to attract more complex parts,’ she explains. ‘Unfortunately, there is still that thing that, as women, in our twenties we get cast as the love interest, the girlfriend. When you first leave drama school, you tend to get very typecast. But as you grow as an actor, you can start to say no. You start to pick and choose, and say, “Actually, do I need to do this?” It’s nice to have that agency.’ She’s also taking more lead roles: Clifton Hill, a thriller in which she plays a young woman returning to her hometown of Niagara Falls, just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In real life, Tuppence keeps herself to herself. ‘I’m quite a lone bird and a home bird,’ she explains. ‘I’m really happy cooking for myself and reading, and I love to go to the Heath to find some green.’ She does have a book club with friends, though the latest choice of Truman Capote’s gruesome true-crime thriller In Cold Blood does not exactly imply a fun night in with the girls.

Tuppence’s lips are sealed on spoilers as to what’s in store for the Downton team, in what will surely be a warm hug of a film as the nights begin to grow longer. But, she lets slip, she would happily return if its success launched a franchise, a more civilised, action-free The Fast And The Furious. From that, at least, we can surmise that she does not go the way of poor Mr Pamuk.

Downton Abbey is in cinemas September 13.