This was the response when the actor famously left Downton Abbey at its height, fearful of being typecast as a floppy-haired aristo. Now based in LA, he’s starring in everything from comedy and horror to a new series about Watergate
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I’ve watched
The Rental, his two latest and remarkably different
movies, in the space of two days. The English star is being modest. Ever since his career-making role in
Downton Abbey abruptly ended in 2012, when his character Matthew Crawley died in the Christmas special, he has deliberately kept that face of his fresh in our minds.
Along the way, he has been a murderous army veteran in
The Guest, the Beast to Emma Watson’s Belle in Disney’s
Beauty and the Beast live-action remake and a schizophrenic mutant in
X-Men-related TV show
Legion. “It’s a dream to turn from one thing and go and do something completely different,” he says. “That’s really all I ever set to achieve – variety.”