Downton Abbey Season 4 Preview with Michelle Dockery and Rob James Collier talking love interests including new cast members Tom Cullen and Julian Ovenden.

Michelle Dockery on switching characters
Michelle Dockery talked to OTRC.com about which other ‘Downton Abbey’ character she would love to play.

‘Downton Abbey’ stars Michelle Dockery comment on Diddy parody.

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Thanks to Claudia and Olivia, several more photos from the An Evening with Downton Abbey event have been added to the gallery! Stay tuned ’cause I’ll will be adding pics from the missing 2012/2013 events during the weekend! :)

Gallery Links:
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” [+82]
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” – Panel [+4]
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” – Inside [+1]

It was announced by the Daily Mail a few weeks ago that she had received an offer for the lead role in Simon Curtis’ adaptation of the novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Jeff Sneider of The Wrap said today on Twitter that she is confirmed as being attached!

While in LA for promoting Downton Abbey, the cast has done a photoshoot for The Hollywood Reporter. It will probably be featured in one of the upcoming issues but a couple of behind the scenes pics have been added to the gallery!

@hope_ivers The British are here! Cast of #downtonabbey looking sharp for today’s Hollywood Reporter photo shoot.

@janicebmin Right now in #LA: @DowntonAbbey cast getting their glam on @thr photo shoot. Gorgeous! pic.twitter.com/SHsGHYlLS5

Gallery Link:
Photoshoots > Sessions from 2013 > Session 04 [+2]

Matthew Crawley, who?

In the upcoming fourth season of Downton Abbey (premiering Jan. 5, 2014), Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) will have plenty of men to keep her mind off the death of her husband.

“Quite a few and they’re very handsome,” Dockery told me last night at the Downton Abbey event at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood when I asked how many new men would be after her character. “Yes, there are a few potential suitors…[But] I don’t even know where it’s going yet.” 

Let’s hope it goes in the steamy direction, because two of the said suitors are being play by hotties Tom Cullen and Julian Ovenden.

Dockery said the cast is given scripts about two weeks in advance of shooting. “Most of the time we don’t really know what ‘s coming,” she said. “It’s funny because, like the audience, we all start to speculate—you know, I wonder if this happens or apparently this happens [but] none of it turns out to be true.”

Dockery just hopes things turn out for the better. Not only was Matthew killed in a car accident, but his untimely death happened while Mary was giving birth to their first child. Season four begins six months after Matthew’s demise.

“It’s just when [Mary] is starting to think about getting back to life,” series creator Julian Fellowes said.

“I just want her to be happy eventually,” Dockery said. “She was, and now she’s not again.”

The casting of Downton‘s first black character made headlines last month when it was announced Gary Carr will be popping up in the new season as a jazz singer named Jack Ross.

Dockery laughed when we suggested uptight Mary hook up with an entertainer.

“Maybe that’s what Julian’s got up his sleeve,” she said. “She runs off with the jazz singer!”

Maybe not, but expect plenty of Great Gatsby-like soirees at Downton. “We’re really kind of moved into the 20s now so it’s all very Bright Young Things,” Dockery said. “There are a lot of parties.”

We can’t wait!

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The Downton Abbey cast got the full star treatment in America, where the ITV period drama is a huge ratings hit.

Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Elizabeth McGovern, Phyllis Logan and Rob James-Collier joined the series’ creator, Julian Fellowes, in Hollywood for An Evening With Downton Abbey — an event to share secrets about the forthcoming fourth series.

Downton has become the highest-rating show in the history of the Public Broadcasting Service, America’s much-smaller equivalent of the BBC. The new series will air in the UK this September, and on US television in January.

Dockery’s character Lady Mary Crawley was left a widow with a young baby when her husband — played by Dan Stevens — died in a car accident at the end of series three. She told the LA audience: “What’s wonderful to play is the whole British, stiff upper-lip thing. You keep calm and carry on. She’s a survivor, she will come through it.”

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Michelle Dockery just finished a long day of filming at Highclere Castle, the English country house that always looks so lovely on “Downton Abbey,” even though most spring days there are wet and windy. Before heading off to a late dinner with “Downton” creator Julian Fellowes (“I’m going to try to find out some story lines, but it’s like getting blood out of a stone,” Dockery good-naturedly complains), the Emmy-nominated actress took a break to talk about where her character, Lady Mary, might be heading in the wake of the shocking season-three finale death of her beloved husband, Matthew.

Q. So how far along are you in shooting the new season?

A. We’re almost halfway through. We’re filming episodes five and six.

Q. Lady Mary’s wedding …

A. Oh, no, not yet! (Laughs.) She hasn’t moved on that quickly!

Q. Some worry she will move on too quickly. She must mourn Matthew! Properly!

A. And she will. There’s no way she’ll fall for someone that quickly. Matthew was the love of her life. But …

Q. I knew there was going to be a “but …”

A. Well, the predicament that Mary’s in now is that she does need to find someone eventually. She has the heir to Downton, she has baby George, and she is under pressure to find someone. In that world, women had to find someone. It was all about marriage and who you’d spend the rest of your life with.

Q. Judging from what I’ve read, potential suitors are making a beeline to Downton.

A. Oh, they are! Yes! She’s an eligible bachelorette. It’s exciting. We’ve got some great actors joining the show.

Q. The finale ended with that close-up on Matthew’s lifeless eyes and bleeding skull – did it have to be that graphic?

A. It had to seem final! We couldn’t leave it open because it would be brutal if people were wondering if he was still alive. I remember when I first read it, I was just in a flood of tears. It was the finality of mine and Dan’s time together on the show. But then I thought, “Wow! The audience will really be shocked!” And because the rumor got out that Dan was leaving, people were prepared for it. But they were not prepared for it being that brutal. But as I say, it had to be that way.

Q. And now even midway through filming the upcoming season, you still have no idea where Fellowes will be taking Mary?

A. I haven’t a clue. And that’s what’s brilliant about the show. Julian writes as he goes along, and the story develops from each set of rushes he watches. The thing about Mary is that she’s incredibly strong and has already been through quite a lot. Before Matthew died, she lost a sister and went through the whole scandal with Pamuk and Richard Carlisle. She’s really been through the mill. And what’s wonderful to play is the whole British, stiff-upper-lip thing. You keep calm and carry on.

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Audiences last saw her Downtown Abbey character become both a mother and a widow in the shocking season finale.

And Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, looked excited to join her castmates for an ‘Evening with Downton Abbey’ in North Hollywood on Monday. The 31-year-old actress was plum perfection as she posed at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in her sleeveless purple frock, black pumps, and gold clutch.

The Emmy-nominated star will officially return as the mourning mother of six-month-old baby George when season four premieres next January on PBS.

‘We’re almost halfway through. We’re filming episodes five and six,’ Michelle told the LA Times last month. ‘The predicament that Mary’s in now is that she does need to find someone eventually. She has the heir to Downton, and she is under pressure to find someone. In that world, women had to find someone. It was all about marriage and who you’d spend the rest of your life with.’

However, Dockery still has no clue what series creator Julian Fellowes has in store for the highest-rated drama in PBS history.

‘Julian writes as he goes along, and the story develops from each set of rushes he watches,’ said the raven-bobbed actress. ‘It’s what’s wonderful to play is the whole British, stiff-upper-lip thing. You keep calm and carry on. She’s not weak. She’s a survivor. So she will come through it.’

The Golden Globe nominee will also appear in the air marshal thriller Non-Stop with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore, due out February 28 of next year.

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Gallery Links:
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” [+176]
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” – Panel [+14]
Events & Public Appearances > 2013 > June 10: An Evening With “Downton Abbey” – Inside [+8]

Pictures will soon be added to the gallery, but for now check out a couple of articles on the event as well as some links to videos of the red carpet!

Daily Mail and Deadline both have respective rundowns of the event!