Lady Mary is back in circulation on “Downton Abbey” — and the best prospect to help her mend her widow’s heart is Lord Anthony Gillingham, the dashing nobleman played by rising British actor Tom Cullen.
On Sunday’s episode (9 p.m./PBS), they meet at an elegant “Gosford Park”-style house party, with Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) giving Lord Anthony a tour, on horseback, of the dazzling green estate.
With his dark, brooding good looks — the exact opposite of fair-haired, blue-eyed Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley — Gillingham fits in at Downton. He knows what to say, what not to say and how to use the silverware.
The Welsh-born Cullen felt utterly at home, as well.
“I grew up in the countryside and you get used to the lushness. I felt instantly relaxed,” he says. Speaking from Toronto via Skype, Cullen does a funny impersonation of Dockery’s chummy Essex accent, which she sheds for Lady Mary’s cut-glass voice. Is Dockery as opaque as poor uptight, spoiled Mary? Hardly. “She’s such a sweetheart,” Cullen says. “Very funny, and we laughed a lot,” he says.
The chemistry between the two actors was evident when executive producer Gareth Neame summoned Cullen for an audition. “He was on our radar for a year or so. The characters did know each other from a time in the past,” Neame says. “There’s certainly a friendship there. He is a recurring character for lots of the season.”
There’s so much more than that on the horizon. Cullen, 28, tells The Post he had to clear his schedule for the next six months to report for duty at Highclere Castle when “Downton Abbey” goes into production for Season 5 in February. Utmost discretion may prevent Lady Mary from accepting Willingham’s overeager dinner invitation — and, later, a more daring proposal — but their courtship will continue.
Cullen believes Gillingham and Lady Mary will be able to support each other through the dying days of the aristocracy. “He’s inherently a sad man. As he says to Mary, ‘We both understand the system’ they’re both stuck in,” Cullen says. “He fought in the First World War and has taken over his father’s estate. But he feels like his life is running away from him. He’s set to marry the heiress of the season. Then he meets Lady Mary.”
Although Cullen always wanted to act, he didn’t find the courage to train properly for a career until he was in his mid-20s, first at the famed Central School for Drama and Speech — which he says he “half-left, half got kicked-out of” — and later at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He graduated with First Class Honors.
He was already working before graduation and created a sensation in 2011 for his starring role in the indie film “Weekend.” Cullen’s sensitive portrayal of a tentative gay man living in a Nottingham council estate won the 28-year-old a Best Actor nomination from the London Film Critics. It was his first time in front of a movie camera and he hasn’t stopped working: “Desert Dancer” and “If You See Her” are two of several films that are coming out this year. Humility becomes an actor on the cusp of stardom, and Cullen says nothing in his background prepared him for the showbiz life.
“My parents are both creative people who never earned a lot of money,” he says. “I never in a million years thought I’d be doing this. My dad never would have dreamt of doing some of the things I’ve been able to do.”
If it’s not enough that Cullen has joined the cast of one of TV’s hottest shows in its most successful season, he’s also dating one of the medium’s rising stars — Tatiana Maslany, the mind-blowing star of BBC America’s “Orphan Black.” She is expected to take home the Best Actress Golden Globe award for playing six different characters, with multiple accents.
“She’s the only actor I know who can do that,” says Cullen, who met Maslany when they were filming “World Without End,” a 2012 miniseries. “She’s in Meryl Streep territory. She’s really magic.”
Cullen has never been to an American awards show, but he’s going to the Globes on Sunday. He’s supporting his girlfriend and his cast mates from “Downton,” which may take home the Best Drama Series prize. He plans on remaining low-key. “Nobody knows who I am,” he says. “I get to disappear into the background and drink whiskey.”
Good luck with that. The 10 million “Downton” fans who tuned in for the Season 5 premiere will definitely know who Cullen is by the time the Golden Globes are over.