Downton Abbey Star Julian Ovenden Reveals What It’s Like Working With Pigs

The Downton Abbey storyline seems to just get better and better as more and more interesting twists unfold.

Last night’s episode, was all about pigs – among other things – and the pigs have been on the lips of many an Englishman (and woman) since. It was apparently quite challenging to work with them.

Julian Ovenden, who plays Charles Blake in the show, gave an interview to The Wire where he revealed many things you never knew about pigs, and other things, of course.

Here are some interesting excerpts from the interview, starting with a question about Blake’s questionable relationship with Lady Mary :

We talked about that relationship between you and Mary. She’s so known for her spiky dialogue, and you had to match that. What was that like?

It was great to come in and play something strong. Michelle’s a very strong actress, she’s feisty. It was really good fun, and it was great to come in and feel like there was immediately something happening.

Because Downton moves at quite a slow pace in comparison to most other television shows. And it takes sometimes a few episodes for a storyline to re-heat up, which is rather nice actually, I think It’s quite gentle. It’s quite subtle in that respect, but obviously I had to come in with a bit more of a bang I suppose. For want of a better word.

The Wire interview soon got the point though, and asked Ovenden about the pigs:

I have to ask you: what was it like filming the pig scene?

Hilarious. Because the pigs just had sex basically throughout the whole day. Either because they were… well, more likely because they were completely bored and oblivious to what was going on. I don’t think they were turned on by the scene. It was quite a lot of pigs as well.

But it was a bit fun. It was a really fun scene to do. I think especially for Michelle to be put in that kind of situation, it was hilarious. And we had real fun flinging mud and doing all that and trying to make it as comedic as possible.

That wasn’t quite enough detail, even though the sex bit was humorous, as the interviewer continued:

There were quite a few duplicates. They’re called hero costumes. That’s the technical name for it. A little bit like a stunt term, I’m not too sure, because they are going to get ruined pretty quickly.

Apparently the pigs thing even went a little viral on the internet in Britain, as Ovenden explained:

It was a fun day. And the pigs suddenly became a big part of the whole thing. Everyone was talking about the pigs, it became quite fun in England. The pigs were trending on the Internet.

Whichever way you cut it, Downton Abbey has acquired an almost cult following as viewers stay glued to their televisions for the next installment of the classic British period drama.