Paul Giamatti recently opened up about the production of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale in the wake of Maggie Smith‘s death, reflecting on how the film carries her spirit and serves to honor her.
Speaking to People ahead of his forthcoming Black Mirror episode this week, the two-time Oscar nominee opened up about reprising his role from the wildly popular mothership show, in which he appeared during the Season 4 Christmas special as Cora’s (Elizabeth McGovern) brother Harold Levinson.
“It was not the same without her, but it felt very much like in her honor in some way. She certainly still feels present through the whole thing. Not having her there is obviously a huge loss, but everybody was still acting in her spirit,” The Holdovers star said.
He added, “Working with her the first time around was one of the best things ever and I didn’t even really get to do that much with her.”
Giamatti’s casting in Downton Abbey 3 is a bit surprising, even to the actor himself. Given his original one-episode arc, the actor was initially taken aback at being approached to reenter the world of the British period drama.
“The interesting thing for me was that they even asked me at all because I was like, ‘I don’t have an important character in this story.’ But what’s funny is my character has a very significant role. He does something very significant in the movie,” he teased.
Joining Giamatti are new additions Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan, as well as cast mainstays McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sophie McShera and Douglas Reith.
Giamatti’s words echo sentiments shared by executive producer Gareth Neame last year, who said that the movie will feature a “meaningful” tribute to the late Smith, who died in late September 2024.
“The fact that Dame Maggie herself has now passed away since that time, I do think, has given a real added poignancy to a story that we would have planned anyway,” he stated at the time. “The loss of the Dowager, it now feels far more significant that you see actors playing characters mourning the family matriarch. But I also see actors mourning the matriarch of the show, and it feels more genuine and more meaningful.” (Smith’s character — Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she received three Emmy Awards — died in 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era.)
Downton Abbey 3 is set for theatrical release Sept. 12.
