While the bulk of “Downton Abbey” is, of course, filmed at the abbey (or its accompanying sets), “Downton Abbey: A New Era” brings a whole new perspective to the abbey’s inhabitants. While a movie set takes over the family estate and turns life on its head, a handful of beloved characters venture to the south of France. It’s not just for a vacation, however, but rather to track down why Maggie Smith’s matriarchal character was gifted a home in the beautiful setting by a man she hardly knew. With these two simultaneous storylines evolving, we asked Laura Carmichael what it was like filming the second feature, and she reflected on the unique process.
“It’s quite often a game of two classes, isn’t it, at ‘Downton’? With the upstairs and the downstairs, because of the location,” Carmichael explained. “The downstairs servant quarters were filmed in a studio, and we were at Highclere Castle.” Adding yet another component, however, was the on-location filming in France. Carmichael continued, “We had this extra layer, two or three weeks at the end, which is the cast that goes to France. That meant that it was [more disjointed].”
