'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Actress Raquel Cassidy Talks Saying Goodbye to Phyllis Baxter
FilmSpeak sits with actor Raquel Cassidy about her role in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and saying goodbye to the character she played on both television and film.
Is it harder or easier to say goodbye to something you’ve already said your farewells to? After all, how many times must you say it before it becomes true. For actress Raquel Cassidy, who has been a part of ‘Downton Abbey’ since the fourth season up until its final curtain call, The Grand Finale, doing a third movie was quite surprising after the second film, A New Era, ended with the passing of Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess. As a result, the sense of finitude of the third film felt quite real when production began:
“We knew it was definitely the end this time. We all thought it was the end after the Dowager died at the end of the second movie, and we've said loads of goodbyes. We say goodbye at the end of the series. We’ve done it a lot, but I think, this time, it's in the title. In case we didn't get that message, the very first song ends with goodbye on it.”
Did it feel different? “Yes, I think it did, because we definitely knew it was over, and weirdly, because we kept coming back, I started to go, “Well, if we keep coming back, we can come back from anything!” This time, however, it was a “No, you're not coming back from this.” I think you had to savor it more, and that was the gift of it, knowing this really isn't happening again. Don’t let any of it go for nothing. I don't mean grabbing on to filming the scenes, I mean remember how lucky you are to be here and doing this now.”
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale isn’t simply a goodbye for the characters that populated Julian Fellowes’ world for the past fifteen years, but also a final farewell for the fans, who have stuck with this series – and the movies – since the very beginning, and gave this universe the global appeal none of the actors ever expected by the time it began.
Cassidy explains that, since she joined the show much later than most of the actors of the film, her Downton Abbey journey “started as a fan. For three series, I was a fan. Then for some reason, they went, “Oy, you that fan on that sofa there? Would you like to come and join us?” I felt like a fan who'd come in the side entrance for a while and then, because I knew it was so big already, it’s not like I took it for granted, but it's almost like I couldn't conceive of it. As time has worn on, I realized that, without the fans, there wouldn't have been one film, never mind three films. And I don't think Baxter and Molesley would have got together. If they hadn't really cared about us, I don't think Julian would’ve done it.”
In terms of portraying her character, Phyllis Baxter, for the last time, and sharing her final moments with Kevin Doyle’s Joseph Molesley, Cassidy tells us that “we find her in a place that we don't expect to see her. We expect to find her happily ever after with Molesley. Of course, it is Molesley, so it's not that surprising that he's all wrapped up in himself and taking this brilliant opportunity and torturing himself with it. She’s also independent, and we hear very early on that even though he wants her to give up being of service, she never wants to do that. She’s a servant who wants to stay a servant, and she's proud of that.
When I first started, I was unsure whether Kevin had any idea where his character was going. He’s very gentle, thoughtful, and good at expressing what needs to be communicated to the producers and to Julian to some extent. He kind of led the way, but he would always involve me and ask if things were okay with me for the development of scripts, storylines, and stuff like that. I think it becomes very easy when you do it enough.”
Reflecting back on the time she spent at Downton Abbey portraying her character in both film and television, Cassidy says that “with something as big and as complete a gift as that to be in it as much as you can while you are in it, to really love it and allow yourself to love and live it while you're doing it, in the world of Downton Abbey. Whichever character, either alone or together, always ends up really doing the best they can by themselves and by one another. There’s a real spirit of community, even though we're on different levels, and we have different choices available to us. Sometimes, the servants might have more choice than the higher-ups, even though, financially, not so much. I think that sense of community, family and sticking together is something that I really love about the show, and would think is one of the things that maybe somebody watching it would feel they want in their life. There's something wonderful about that for us to hold on to in this quite disparate life that we have.”