Lacing up her corset for a final performance as Lady Edith in the Downton Abbey movie, Laura Carmichael was overwhelmed. “I can’t imagine that anyone feels about Downton the way that I do,” she says. “It changed my life in the most dramatic way possible. If I hear the theme music, I can get a bit emotional.”
She thoroughly enjoyed returning to Highclere Castle for the film, which she hopes will “bring people that same feeling the show did”. “The shoot was fun, we had a really good time,” she says, cheerfully. “It felt very comfortable going back and lovely to be with everyone again. There’s so much affection for the show and we feel that as well.”
Downton fans breathlessly waiting for its big-screen treatment can sate their appetite for period drama with The Spanish Princess, a new limited series shedding light on Catherine of Aragon’s early reign, in which Carmichael plays the Countess Maggie Pole. Although she only had “a small knowledge” of Henry VIII before embarking on the project, the actress was immediately attracted to the show because it is “unashamedly coming at the past from the perspective of the female characters”.
“Catherine is remembered as a footnote in history books, the older wife Henry VIII divorced because he couldn’t get a kid out of her,” she says. “To see her as this young, passionate, beautiful woman who tries to become Queen of England is really interesting.”
This reframing of Tudor England from a women-centric point of view was aided by the show’s majority-female directors (who lensed six of the eight episodes). In and of itself, this is cause for celebration; however it does fall short of the showrunners’ intentions to employ an all-female directing line-up. Does Carmichael have any theories on why this plan was abandoned? “I don’t know actually,” she admits, sheepishly. “The thing I’m really proud of – and I hope becomes something that is not shocking – is that I feel they were all asked to do the show because they are all phenomenal film-makers. I think that’s what is important. The directors were really good at their job and they happened to be women, rather than the other way around. I’m glad that we’re really talking about it to try and make the people who are telling the stories as diverse as the world we live in.”
Despite The Spanish Princess’ primarily female gaze, the series is “not in any way a particularly soft feminine story”. Indeed, the pilot bears witness to bloody battles, faith-based tensions and dramatic arguments. The women – from the top of the social hierarchy to the bottom – are often the protagonists of these disputes, and are surprisingly feisty in their exchanges. (Carmichael’s Maggie Pole has a deliciously wicked aside when she wishes for “that Spanish girl to sink to the bottom of the ocean”.)
The actress believes our traditional conception of Tudor womanhood – of being seen but not heard – is an anachronism. “Our idea of playing them as weak because they’re not necessarily in control of their decisions is a modern-day interpretation,” she explains. “They weren’t quietly spoken; they were forceful, even if that didn’t necessarily mean that they could rule in the same way that men did.”
The show does not claim to be 100 per cent true-to-life – “the ages are a bit squiffy and things like that” – but another authentic element of The Spanish Princess is its casting of people of colour in Catherine’s court. Period dramas have historically overlooked black talent: Carmichael never worked with BAME actors on Downton and the recent news that Sterling K Brown has been cast in the 1950s-set The Marvelous Mrs Maisel was met with delighted shock.
The actress is glad that representation is finally gaining traction. “For a long time, stories have not been representing the world we live in and I’m pleased that’s changing,” she says. “On our show, we’re looking back and going, ‘What actually happened?’ Catherine of Aragon brought people of colour with her in her entourage. Isn’t that amazing for us to now look at this and go, ‘Why were these stories not told?’ I love how much status those characters have and how much it’s not a defining element of their narrative that they are black as opposed to white.”
Carmichael gravitates towards untold stories, and admits she’d very much like to star in a project about “the early female film-makers”. “In the pre-talkies, it wasn’t very controversial to be a female film-maker and I think that’s fascinating,” she says. “They were winning Oscars for their silent movies, then as soon as it became big business, the men came in and they all lost their jobs.” Here’s hoping Laura Carmichael will continue to shed light on the secret lives of unknown women for many years to come.
‘The Spanish Princess’ is available on Starzplay on 5 May.
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