"Downton Abbey" Star Elizabeth McGovern: Countess & Rock Star

It's Tracy in the Young Hollywood Studio and we are with Elizabeth McGovern. How are you? Welcome back. This is your second time with us. So, you know, obviously a lot has changed. Of course with, you know, you've just completed three seasons of Down to Abby, which first of all, being the success of the show is so huge besides, you know, in the UK obviously, but in the US and it's all over the world. Does it still, you know, amazing to you of just sort of what the phenomenon it's become?

Yes. I'm not used to it. No. But I'm enjoying it. We're the whole, we're all enjoying it.

Yeah. And are you guys, you know, as a cast, have you sort of, has anything evolved in terms of how you, you know, are with your castmates or is it, is it easier? Is it more challenging?

I think we just have that feeling of having done something that you've all been doing for a really long time. So there's a nice feeling of trust amongst the cast.

Right. And, you know, your character, you know, Lady Cora, you've you've gone through a lot in the last season. I mean, which is shocking for the fans that you lost your youngest daughter, and now you just lost your son-in-law. Yeah. In such a short period of time. I don't know, I feel like the fans who are watching are obviously very shocked because they were prominent characters in the show.

It's been terrible to lose Matthew as a character. But it's very dramatic too because it's hard to create a show around a happy marriage, but it's easier to create a show around a bereaved, beautiful, gorgeous Michelle Dockery looking for the next guy. So, in some ways it's been terrible for us, but not bad for the storylines of the show.

Almost a sort of like a reality show that's scripted for that time period. English. It's kind of like watching the way they're describing it. We're getting into the whole because I know you've lived in London for a long time. Yeah. You know, the English culture versus the American culture. Which I there was one part, you know, in the series where you had, you know, Maggie Smith and then you had Shirley MacLaine, which was your mom and they were clashing with the whole culture thing, which was great for the audience. So, you know, first of all, how was it working with that? Was it just wild?

It was a gas and a half, it really was. I mean, it was exactly what you'd expect. Yeah. When Shirley met Maggie for the first time, although I think they had had history, but it was, you know, it'd been 30 years. She literally gave her such a huge bear hug. Maggie's feet weren't touching. Maggie was, "Oh, oh, oh." And then it went on from there. I mean, it was, you know, it's just what you'd think.

You know, I think something that's interesting about you that most Downton Abbey fans might not know is that you're actually a singer also and you have a rock and roll band.

Yes. Thanks for asking. Yeah, called Sadie and the Hotheads. That's right.

So, how I it's an interesting story I think how you started forming that because, you know, you've lived in London for a long time now. And you're from America. But how did that all come into play? Were you always into music or were you

I never have ever seen myself as a performer of music. And the way I got into it is that I really loved to write songs. And I was really responding to somebody that I met. This is now over 10 years ago. We started writing together and we don't write together so much anymore, but he's still a really big part of the band and plays with me wherever I go. So that that was my way into it, but it there was never any idea that it would ever be commercially viable, which is really nice because we weren't ever trying for that. We were just writing songs that we wanted to play. And because of Downton Abbey and because we've got this profile and because the press loved this idea of Cora ripping off her corset and it is kind of amazing because you think she's crazy. Yeah, I mean to be fair, it is totally insane. Um, it's really given the band a momentum, which of course energizes the musicians and it means that we can play a lot together. And in September, we're opening for Sting at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Yeah. I mean literally it's it's like whoa. I mean I never ever in a million years would have thought that it would get this far. I mean I don't feel like it's been an overnight thing. It's just that we've worked hard for 10 years thinking why the hell are we doing this? Right. And now we're thinking, how the hell did this happen?

There was a story about a pirate. I don't know the whole story, but it was really interesting. There was a search. I just remember you said there was some you were traveling for like hundreds of miles and you saw a pirate in the audience.

No, there was it was the very, very early days. We would look for any opportunity that we could find to play and um, I found something somewhere, it was called the Bishop Stortford Music Festival. And I just applied over the internet and then I called up Simon, my guitar player and said, "We got in, we got in, we got in." I'm like over the internet. And it turns out after a five hour drive on the day, we showed up at this Bishop Stortford, which was subarctic on stage. I was in the middle of performing and I realized, I looked down to my horror that I couldn't really tell what I was hearing, but my fingers weren't moving on the So I it couldn't have been I was playing the right cord. And on top of that, we looked out and there was literally this big field of mud and there was not one person there.

Oh my. I was that's amazing. Like the fingers. Like wait a minute. Where are we?

But then on the very horizon, I thought, "There is somebody coming." And he came closer and he came closer. I thought, "I am hallucinating." He was dressed from head to toe as a pirate.

Are you sure I mean This was real. You were not hallucinating.

But this is what I mean. Then about five years after this and we're in Downton Abbey and we're getting cool and we got a agent and we're playing at the Isle of Wight. So we go out on stage and it's groovy and the weather's sunny and there's people out there and we're playing the fingers are moving. And I look out there and there's a guy dresses a pirate.

No.

Yeah. I don't know if it's the same pirate.

Just like a stalker. Your number one fan clearly.

I don't know. I haven't seen him since. So if you're out there.

He's watching. Yeah. He is watching you.