Some of the cast of ‘Downton Abbey’ talked about the new season. You can read 18 spoilers below but if you want to learn more about what’s coming next for Lady Rose, it’s the 7th spoiler.

BUZZFEED – Michelle Dockery, Allen Leech, Laura Carmichael, and Joanne Froggatt share details about the new season with BuzzFeed. Warning: SPOILERS ahead if you haven’t finished Season 4.
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INDIEWIRELily James
There are times when those of us not in thrall to the televisual crack cocaine that is “Downton Abbey” feel like we’re missing out, and Lily James’ turn as Lady Rose MacClare is a case in point. Prior to the all-conquering period drama, James had a recurring role on the Billie Piper-starring “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” and a small role in “Clash of the Titans,” along with a couple of smaller British films, notably feelgood competitive running movie “Fast Girls.” But for all that, she remained largely under the radar. But as little as we watch ‘Downton,’ it’s clear that casting directors pay it a great deal more attention, and James is about to become inescapable. Appropriately, her professional rags-to-riches story really kicked into gear when she was cast as the titular, uncomfortable footwear-sporting “Cinderella” in Kenneth Branagh’s live action version. After that we’ll see her in Bradley Cooper’s untitled restaurant film, scripted by Steven Knight and co-starring fellow 2014 On the Rise alum Jamie Dornan, and recent word has it that she’ll be back in corsets once again to play Natasha to Paul Dano’s Pierre in a lavish BBC miniseries production of “War and Peace” (billed as “the most ambitious event series ever made for the BBC”). She’s being somewhat typecast into period pieces and princessy type roles at the moment, but if Disney’s “Cinderella” does anything like the business the studio clearly hopes for, she could turn out to be the next Anne Hathaway—she has both the face and the talent.

While promoting ‘Downton Abbey’ series 5, the cast joke about what their characters would be like if they time-travelled to 2014.

The cast of Downton Abbey embraced ‘water bottle-gate’ today by posing for a picture to promote Wateraid’s work.

A publicity still released this week hit the headlines when a plastic water bottle was spotted in the corner of the picture. The official photograph of The Earl and Lady Edith was cropped and used during the launch of the new season, but it was when an uncropped version of the image worked its way onto the internet that it sparked a global press frenzy.

An itv spokesperson said, “After seeing the reaction the picture caused earlier this week, the cast and crew came up with the idea of turning some of this attention towards an issue around water that really matters. They hope that by posing for this picture they will be able to raise awareness and amplify the work of international charity – WaterAid.”

If you enjoyed the photo, donate online or text WATER to 70007 to donate £3, to help get clean water and safe toilets to the world’s poorest communities.

Barbara Frost, Chief Executive of WaterAid, said:
“It brought a really big smile to my face when the cast of Downton Abbey said that they wanted to support WaterAid’s work. How fantastic that the attention created over one water bottle ends up benefiting some of the world’s poorest communities through access to safe, clean water today.

“Every pound and penny WaterAid receives will be matched by the UK Government, which means we can reach twice as many people with desperately needed clean water and sanitation.

“Thank you so much to the cast and the producers of Downton Abbey.”

Show your support and donate online now.

I have added the first promotional picture of ‘Downton Abbey’ season 5, featuring all characters. Enjoy!
(Edit: Updated with high quality, thanks to FFA.)

GALLERY LINKS
Television Productions > Downton Abbey (2012-2014) > Season 5 > Promotional Pictures

Read below the full interview of Lily for Town & Country magazine from the Summer 2014 issue. A new outtake has also been added to the gallery.

TOWN & COUNTRY – Thanks to Downton Abbey, Lily James – as Lady Rose – is now a global star. Andrew O’Hagan meets the girl with the world at her feet, and explores how a homegrown drama became an international obsession

Once upon a time in the County of Ayr, a man called Archibald Montgomerie, the 13th Earl of Eglinton, decided to throw a marvellous, romantic pageant, on which he squandered his family’s entire fortune. Over a weekend in August 1839, he put on a tournament that attracted 100,000 people. His estate in Kilwinning was thronged with visitors from all over Britain, coming in carriages, carts, by pony and on foot, the road from Glasgow jammed with people equal in their wish to enjoy the Earl’s historic flight of fancy. Inspired by Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, the jousting was to be witnessed by Napoleon III of France, Princess Esterhazy of Hungary, Count Persigny of France, the Earls of Cassillis and Craven, and the Viscount Glenlyon. But the Eglinton Tournament wasn’t just for the upper orders; the majority of spectators were farmers and tradesmen, captivated by the spectacle of mediaeval chivalry and by a firm belief that the aristocracy offered moral entertainment and instruction, with banners, trumpets and flags.

It rained for three days and the tents were swamped. The fields were deluged, the ladies’ gowns dragged in the mud, and rain filled every goblet. The fantasy descended into chaos as the heavens opened and the people fled. When I was a child, growing up only a mile from Eglinton Castle, I became obsessed with the Tournament. It wasn’t the disaster alone. What I loved to think about, on rainy days in the 1970s, was the romance of it all, the belief invested in such splendour by everyday people. It told a story about class in Britain, a story that is more complicated (and more charming) than mere politics can describe. A part of me wants to hate the terrible waste of money in a time of poverty, but the bigger part sees it as the last, great gasp of the old world before the industrial revolution. Now, the world is enchanted with images of the British country house, the servants, the manners, the notions of order and decency, the intrigue of social differences and how they once played out. Downton Abbey has become a national obsession in the United States and elsewhere, the life of the monied, landed British gentry of the past now seeming almost magical to people who have perhaps come to know a life more ordinary.
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Hi! I have added outtakes from Lily’s latest photoshoot for Harper’s Bazaar with her ‘Downton Abbey’ co-stars.

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: The adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride And Prejudice And Zombies has been seeking big-screen life ever since the smash mash-up novel was published in 2009 — but through a series of director changes, it sometimes looked like it had one foot in the grave. No more. The movie version now is a reality with principal photography slated to start in September and Cross Creek Pictures acquiring domestic rights with a commitment for a wide U.S. release. Hot British actors Lily James and Sam Riley and Australia’s Bella Heathcote have been set to lead the film that mixes the 1813 Jane Austen classic Pride And Prejudice with a legion of bloodthirsty undead. Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down, Charlie St Cloud) is directing from a screenplay by David O. Russell and Steers. Brian Oliver, Allison Shearmur, Sean McKittrick, Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch, Tyler Thompson and Marc Butan will produce on behalf of Sierra/Affinity, which also is handling foreign sales. (The project formerly was at Panorama but moved over with Butan when he joined Sierra/Affinity in January.) CAA packaged the Cross Creek deal.

Published by Quirk Books, the international bestseller has taken its time to get to the starting line. Russell, whose strong script has been one of the constants throughout the process, at one point was going to direct for Lionsgate, but he dropped out in 2010. The studio then chose Mike White, who subsequently left over a scheduling conflict, and Craig Gillespie moved into position in April 2011, only to exit six months later. That split was amicable, but as Deadline reported at the time, had to do with things like who to cast. Emma Stone passed on the lead role in June 2011.

Portman, who along with much of the team has been aboard as producer from the outset, at one point was going to star and later dropped out. Lily Collins was floated for the lead last year at around the time Steers came on. The package is now firmed up with James playing Elizabeth Bennett, Riley as Mr Darcy and Heathcote as Elizabeth’s sister. Jack Huston is also in talks. The novel plays with the relationships between lovers from different social classes in 19th century England who are faced with the challenge of an army of the “sorry stricken” aka zombies.

James, best known for her role as Lady Rose on Downton Abbey, next will be seen in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (which Shearmur is also producing), and also is circling the Weinstein Co/BBC miniseries War And Peace. She’s repped by UTA and the UK’s Tavistock Wood Management. Riley was in the Disney smash Maleficent and is in The Weinstein Co’s upcoming Suite Française; he’s repped by WME and Tavistock Wood. Heathcote’s credits include Dark Shadows and In Time; she’s repped by WME and Oz’s JM Agency.