Everyone missed the bubbly and charming Lady Rose is in the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie? Till now, her absence was kind of a mystery for most people, but the reason behind it has finally been revealed. Here’s why she wasn’t in the movie.
Lily James aka Lady Rose Aldridge (formerly MacClare) of ‘Downton Abbey’ is among the show’s most prominent characters. Viewers immediately grew to love her. Introduced to the show in a supporting role, the character soon won the fans over with her vivacious spirit. Predictably, it was quite a bummer for the audience when they realised that Lady Rose has been dropped out from the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie. There are two versions of the reason behind James not returning to reprise her role. Keep scrolling down to find out.
Highlights —
- Lady Rose, the rebellious rule-breaker of the Downton world
- Did her big star status stop her from returning to ‘Downton Abbey’?
- Lily James feels Rose didn’t belong to the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie
Lady Rose, the rebellious rule-breaker of the Downton world
In one of the episodes of ‘Downton Abbey’, which dealt with Lady Ross’s controversial love interest, Jack Ross, Jack described Rose to Mrs Hughes as “quite a character”. Mrs Hughes immediately responded with a crisp remark, “Lady Rose? That’s one word for her”.
Lady Rose waltzed her way into the Downton world when she came to stay with the Dowager in the fall of 1920. The Crawley family offers Rose to stay on when her parents leave for a trip to India. If you thought Lady Sybil was the rebellious rule-breaker of the Downton world, with Lady Rose in the field, there’d be no competition.
Not only did Lady Rose have her share of fun sneaking out to parties, drinking and dancing with strange men, but even her choice of partners have raised eyebrows frequently. Starting with an under-gardener to an African-American Jazz singer, Lady Rose had given many heart attacks to the orthodox minds of ‘Downton Abbey’.
Despite her rebellious nature, which is simply the result of having an overbearing mother, she is a kind, free-spirited, and innocent soul that never means any harm. Lady Rose is a delight to watch as she springs around Downton Abbey with childlike excitement. It was crushing for fans to not see her in the movie.
Did her big star status stop her from returning to ‘Downton Abbey’?
Lily James has one of the biggest success stories of the ‘Downton Abbey’ cast. After the show ended, James went on to land major roles in the Hollywood film industry. She landed the lead role in Disney’s ‘Cinderella’ and, later on, grabbed another major role alongside Amanda Seyfried in ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’. James’ Hollywood success rate is currently off the charts and this is why she did not return to play Lady Rose in the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie.
How Well Do You Know Downton Abbey? (Quiz)
Creator Julian Fellowes jokingly tagged James as a “big star” with no available slots for a supporting role, in an interview with “Entertainment Weekly”.
“Lily is now a big star, and it would’ve been incredibly difficult for her to find time in her schedule to come and play essentially a supporting role in ‘Downton’when her career was in a different place when she was with us. In the end, we all felt it was better to leave her in America”, she said.
Gareth Neame, the executive producer of the show added, “Technically, she was only a recurring character in the final season. She came in and made some visits in a couple of episodes, but her story ended at the end of the fifth season when she went off to America”.
Lily James feels Rose didn’t belong to the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie
While the producers believe that James could hardly find the time to appear in the movie, the actor says that it was not all about the schedules. She believes that the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie had no place for Lady Rose. According to James, she would have loved to come back, but it would have been implausible to uproot Lady Rose from her life in New York and force her into the storyline of the movie. She told “People“,
“My character Rose moved off to New York, so it would be farfetched to bring her back. I would have loved to have come back for a scene, but for a movie, it can’t be like a Christmas special and it needs to be a focused storyline. There was no space for Rose”.
We have our fingers crossed for Lady Rose to return in the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie sequel. Would you like to see Lady Rose charm her way into the sequel, if the story allows of course? Let us know in the comments below!
