Elizabeth McGovern confesses she thought showbiz was a breeze.
The actress, 60, made her feature film debut in the 1980 hit film “Ordinary People” starring Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton, directed by Robert Redford.
“I didn’t have anything to compare it to, so my feeling was like, ‘God, show business is easy, isn’t it?” she chuckled in a recent interview with The Post. “Little did I know! Then I had to sort of stick with it for however many years, which we won’t say. But, yes, that was a very special time.
“And when I think back, what an incredibly unusual director to have worked with for my first job — and I do appreciate it more and more as time goes by,” she added.
McGovern went on to star in movies like “Ragtime,” and “She’s Having a Baby,” but for millions of fans around the globe she’s now instantly recognizable as beloved matriarch Cora Crawley in “Downton Abbey.”
Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern in 1980’s “Ordinary People.”Paramount Pictures/ Everett CollectionShe was the lone Yank in the British period drama for its television run and reprised the role in the 2019 film and the sequel, “Downton Abbey: A New Era.”
The Evanston-born actress confessed that, much like her character, she doesn’t quite understand the intricacies of class distinction that are depicted in “Downton Abbey.”
“It’s almost like tribal rituals or something,” she said. “And it holds absolutely no weight with me. It’s quite a freeing thing to not be caught up in all the machinations of the hierarchy … I mean, I literally don’t get it.
“That’s the way I felt when I first moved to England and I still feel the same way.”
McGovern is married to British director Simon Curtis.Bruce Glikas/FilmMagicMcGovern married director Simon Curtis, who helmed the latest “Downton Abbey” film, in 1992, and the couple shares two daughters. Since then she has appeared on numerous British shows and on the UK stage.
Her favorite “Abbey” character is Thomas Barrow, the closeted gay butler.
“I think that that story is so well-written and it always really moves me,” she explained. “It feels like such an accurate depiction of the way someone like him would feel trapped and suppressed. And he is a wonderful story in the film and that gave me a lot of pleasure to watch.”
McGovern shot part of “Downton Abbey: A New Era” in the south of France. She is shown with cast members Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael.Focus Features / Courtesy Everett CollectionAnd as for whether she thinks there will be a third movie?
“I have no idea,” McGovern confessed. “I’m always the cynical one that says, ‘This is it.’ And then a year later, I’m back on the set, so I just give up. I have no idea.
“I would hate for us to push it too much and churn out something that wasn’t kind of the same level of the stuff that I feel we’ve managed to put out. And that’s always my fear. But, you know, I don’t know. Never say never.”
