Dan Stevens' Downton Abbey death kept secret for year
DOWNTON Abbey’s Dan Stevens has been keeping his character’s death a secret for almost a year.
The actor left more than seven million viewers heartbroken when his character, Matthew Crawley, died at the wheel of his car.
But Stevens, who is currently in a stage play on Broadway, reveals he decided to leave the hit ITV show in February. “We were always optioned for three years,” he said yesterday.
“And when that came up it was a very difficult decision. But it felt like a good time to take stock, to take a moment.
There is a strange sense of liberation at the same time as great sadness because I am very, very fond of the show and always will be.
“From a personal point of view I wanted a chance to do other things.”
He said being in Downton had been all-consuming and he leaves the show with sadness but also relief. Stevens said: “It is a very monopolising job. So there is a strange sense of liberation at the same time as great sadness because I am very, very fond of the show and always will be.”
The actor is in the New York production of The Heiress, also starring Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain, until February and will then look at “some exciting opportunities”.