‘Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael On Lady Edith’s Future & ‘Heartbreak’

“Downton Abbey” Season 4 ended with Lady Edith, played by Laura Carmichael, in all sorts of distress.

Between the disappearance of her beau, Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards), having to birth their daughter in secret, and then give her up for adoption, the middle Crawley daughter is suffering – a theme Laura said will continue for her character when the show returns to Masterpiece on PBS in January.

“She really fell very much in love with Michael Gregson and he very much understood her and respected her as a writer and as a sort of modern woman, which is completely different from anyone she’d met before, or any match she had been placed in before,” Laura told Access Hollywood in a new interview, adding that Edith is still “very hopeful” she’ll find him alive.

“He’s the love of her life. With the beginning of the season, you’ll see how devastated she is to not have heard from him. Having had to give up her daughter as well, it just makes the heartbreak even harder,” she continued. “So she’s in a pretty bad place.”

Though she’s distraught, Laura said Edith can handle more than most.

“She’s brave, Edith. She’s sort of tenacious. And she doesn’t give up and she kind of keeps it all in,” she said. “I really think you really like her and side with her because she’s not giving up and letting life defeat her, in a way.”

Making life even worse for Lady Edith at Downton is her older sister, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), who Laura said will be up to her usual Edith-belittling ways in the new season.

“Mary obviously doesn’t know anything that’s gone on. She’s sort of a bit confused as to why she won’t let Gregson go and get on with life… she doesn’t realize that they were deeply in love and Edith had his child and had to give it away,” Laura explained. “It’s incredibly painful. It makes those moments when Mary is awful to Edith that much worse.”

While their characters may often be at odds, off-screen, Laura has a great relationship with Michelle.

“[Michelle] and I are really close. We’re really good friends,” she said.

And as for that dramatic house fire shown in the Season 5 teaser, Laura said she can’t give away too many details.

“It does [start in Edith’s room],” she said. “You’ll have to wait and see – it’s a pretty dramatic opening to the series.”

“Downton Abbey” Season 5 will premiere in the U.S. on January 4, 2015 at 9 PM on Masterpiece on PBS.

Erin O’Sullivan

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