Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey. That guy you barely recognize now.- Page 2

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 11:24pm

Weight loss, weight gain aside, I LOVED his performance in The Line of Beauty.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 11:04am

If his goal was to bounce from Downton into a more visible career, he probably wouldn't have appeared on Broadway and instead looked for a movie role instead of 8x/week for months on end.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 11:08am

Oh, and Matt Damon lost a bunch of weight to play a soldier in Courage Under Fire long before anyone knew who he was...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 12:52pm

If his goal was to bounce from Downton into a more visible career, he probably wouldn't have appeared on Broadway and instead looked for a movie role instead of 8x/week for months on end.

Stop that! You're trying to detract from the righteous schadenfreude people feel because he dared to leave a show after three years!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 4:33pm

I know it always seems disingenuous when actors say it, but I genuinely get the feeling Dan is happy not being a big name. Of course, his agents probably are less so.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 4:39pm

^ That is correct.

I've never seen THE LINE OF BEAUTY...I was hoping those were just the first two clips of the whole thing on youtube...but alas! It ended with his bu-fuing the handsome gentleman of color! WHAT HAPPENS???

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 6:12pm

Two words. Thatcher and AIDS.

:P You really should rent it--though it's hard to replicate Hollinghurst's original gorgeous prose int he book, it's a very good adaptation (even if screenwriter Andrew Davies apparently had to hire someone else to script the gay sex scenes because they made him uncomfortable or something..)

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 6:17pm

You really should rent/download it, Robbie. It's based upon one of my favorite novels of the past twenty years. Alan Hollinghurst won the Booker Prize for it. It's especially compelling to those who have interest in the evolution of British class structure in the late 20th c., the polarizing politics of Thatcher's Britain, gay life in the 80s and reaction to the AIDS crisis. And it's not at all as dry as that sounds--it's actually deeply moving and at times wryly funny. While nothing can replicate Hollinghurst's beautiful writing, I was impressed at how well the novel was adapted for the screen. As I recall, it kind of put Dan Stevens on the map in the UK.

EDITED TO SAY:
Whoops, looks like Eric and I were writing our posts around the same time. Basically...what Eric said.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 6:51pm

...this is a bizarre and kind of uncomfortable thread.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 8:19pm

I'm not lumping Besty in with this group, but I really don't understand fans who feel so much resentment for him leaving the show. And I don't think he looks unrecognizable :P

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 8:26pm

I was upset for a moment back when it happened (at Christmas!), but more so because of the manner in which he was despatched, and the hurry in which it was done. I didn't really blame Dan though, and I got over it.

He looks like Freddie Highmore in the pics best12 posted, dontchathink?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 8:31pm

I admit Julian Fellowes hasn't helped things--his comments have, to deflect any blame for him killing the character off, essentially said "It's Dan's fault! Blame him!" Which is true, of course, but seems a silly way to do things. Besides any soap opera fan knows that when characters get together after years of buildup they become dull :P