British actor Hugh Bonneville, who has long embodied the dignified yet quietly complex Lord Robert Grantham, is excited about reprising the role in the upcoming film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. For Hugh, revisiting Robert in this final chapter has been a chance to explore the layers that make the Crawley patriarch such a compelling figure.
“The thing that I’ve always enjoyed about Robert is that as curmudgeonly and conservative in his background as he is, he’s a liberal and fair-minded man underneath it,” he said, capturing the duality that has defined the character from the very beginning.
This nuance. Hugh said, is especially evident in Robert’s relationship with his eldest daughter, Mary, whose personal trials have often put the family in delicate positions. “When it comes to affairs of the heart, he’s always been very compassionate towards Mary’s circumstances because she often gets herself into messy scrapes. Emerging from the divorce in that era of course was very different to what society’s response is today,” Hugh said, reflecting on how much has—and hasn’t—changed over the decades.
One of the film’s most striking moments, Hugh felt, comes at Lady Petersfield’s Ball, where Mary faces social ostracization for being a divorcee. The scene lays bare the rigid social codes of the 1930s, and Hugh talked about the challenge it posed as an actor.
“There’s a scene where Lady Mary is shunned at Lady Petersfield’s Ball for being a divorcee, and a member of the Royal family should not be seen in the same room as a divorcee. That becomes a huge plot point because Cora and Robert want to leave with Mary, but she insists they stay,” he recounted.
“Julian was adamant that in society, however much you cared about your daughter’s plight, to offend Royalty would not be the ‘done’ thing. That felt very uncomfortable for me as an actor; counterintuitive in fact, but it highlights the stuffiness of the era and how much distance there is between then and now,” Hugh added.
His reflections reveal Robert as a man navigating the tension between tradition and empathy, a stabilizing presence as the Crawleys face profound change. While the family confronts shifting societal norms and the passing of an era, Robert’s quiet moral compass and compassion remain at the heart of Downton Abbey. The Grand Finale, scheduled to release next Friday, will allow audiences to bid farewell to a world they have cherished for over a decade.
