Michelle Dockery looked back on her first day of working alongside Late Dame Maggie Smith on the set of Downton Abbey.
In the series, the two stars played granddaughter and grandmother role as Lady Mary Crawley and Violet Crawley respectively.
In conversation with the People magazine, Dockery recalled, “I’ll never forget the first day we were filming with her, and it may have been the first ever day of the series.”
“It was a dining room scene, and she was so kind to Laura [Carmichael], Jessica [Brown] and me. We were so young and so in awe of everyone and nervous. Maggie put us at ease. She could just crack a joke and just relax us all,” she added.
Dockery and Smith worked on soap historical series from 2010 to 2015, which ran for six seasons followed by two films in 2019 Downton Abbey and in 2022 Downton Abbey: A New Era, in which the viewers saw he death of Smith’s character.
Later in September 2024, the Harry Potter star herself passed away.
Dockery, who reprised her role as Lady Mary in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, “felt very privileged” to work alongside Smith, playing her granddaughter.
“Working with someone like her, you bring your A game, and those were unforgettable, those things. I remember every single one and how they felt,” says Dockery.
She also confirmed that the new film “is partly a tribute to Maggie and to the dowager.”
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is now playing in theatres.