I’ll never forget the moment I watched Downton Abbey’s 2012 Christmas special. One second, Matthew Crawley was driving through the English countryside beaming with joy after meeting his newborn son… and the next, everything shattered. The camera lingered just long enough on his lifeless face to confirm what we didn’t want to believe: he was gone.
For years, fans like me were stunned, and a little hurt, by how abruptly Matthew was written out. The man who had become the emotional heart of the show was suddenly—and rather cruelly—removed. Now, over a decade later, Dan Stevens is speaking more openly about why he chose to leave the show that catapulted him into global fame. And the truth? It’s refreshingly honest.
Dan Stevens joined Downton Abbey in 2010, and it didn’t take long for his portrayal of Matthew Crawley to steal hearts.
His on-screen chemistry with Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary was electric. For many of us, they were the show’s core.
But behind the scenes, Stevens was wrestling with something deeper. In interviews—including one with The Telegraph—he shared that the role, while beloved, had begun to feel creatively limiting.
“It is a desire for freedom, really,” he said. “I wanted to do different things.”
He worried about being typecast and stuck in period dramas forever.
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