And, there is life 'during' Downton Abbey for Lady Edith
Not to be outdone by yesterdays announcement that former Downton Abbey alumni Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil) had been cast in Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, comes news from Variety that current Downton Abbey star, Laura Carmichael, who plays Lady Edith, the Crawley family’s resentful middle sister who seems destined to shed that moniker this season, has joined the cast of Madame Bovary as Henrietta, a character thought to be based on that of Heloise, the first wife of Madame Bovary’s husband Charles.
Carmichael joins fellow Downton cast member, Paul Giamatti, who will portray pharmacist Monsieur Homais. Giamatti, who will grace the halls of Downton as Lady Edith’s playboy uncle in series 4, joins Mia Wasikowska, star of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, who will play the title role of Emma Bovary, a country girl whose idealistic notions of romance, and her disillusionment with her husband, lead her to ill-fated infidelity and financial trouble.
French director Sophie Barthes will adapt and direct the classic Gustave Flaubert novel which is set to begin filming in Normandy, France this week. So, while there may not be life for many of the millions of Downton Abbey fans worldwide after the final episode transmits each season, it’s clear that there is both life during and after the series for the actors involved.
