Beloved “Downton Abbey” character Anna Bates has had to face so much throughout the seasons of the Masterpiece on PBS show.
When the British drama returns this Sunday night, troubles continue for Anna and husband Mr. Bates, as they find themselves haunted by the man who sexually assaulted her in Season 4.
“Anna and Bates are at a place of trying to heal themselves, trying to heal their relationship, trying to move forward in some way, but it’s – it is obviously very difficult and they have the added sort of pressure and horror… that Mr. Green’s name is still being brought up all of the time because of his death,” Joanne Froggatt, who plays Anna, told Access Hollywood. “So it just keeps getting thrust back at them even though they’re really trying to sort of find some space to heal.”
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While Mr. Green is dead (possibly at the hands of Mr. Bates), Anna’s life has been forever changed following the brutal Season 4 rape.
“That sort of experience is not something that just goes away or that you get over. It’s something that changes you as a person and I’ve sort of gone into playing Anna in Season 5 with that in mind — that she’s – she is changed as a person by what’s happened to her, and sort of at the beginning of Season 5, I feel that there’s a little spark of her that’s sort of just gone a little bit, that’s been put out,” Joanne said. “Hopefully that spark will comeback at some point, but I don’t think it was sort of truthful to play it any other way really.”
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While there is pain and difficulties ahead for Anna, there will also be happiness between The Bates’.
“There are moments of lightness and just love and there are moments of happiness between them,” she said. “It’s not all doom and gloom. As we all do, we can still have moments of happiness when dealing with a very difficult or a very traumatic situation, so there’s a lot of light and shade as there is with all of us.”
“Downton Abbey” returns for Season 5 on Sunday, January 4 at 9/8c on Masterpiece on PBS.
— Jolie Lash
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