Elizabeth McGovern, the Academy Award-nominated star of the small and silver screen is looking unrecognisable – debuting an all-new look for her latest television project.
Elizabeth, 63, rose to fame in the 80s with her film debut in the 1980 family drama Ordinary People – appearing alongside Donald Sutherland and Judd Hirsch.
From there, she starred in the 1981 adaptation of Ragtime, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She went on to star in classics Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Bedroom Window (1987) and the original adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale (1990).
Since then, she went on to star as Cora Crawley in the hit costume drama series Downton Abbey, reprising the role in the 2019 film of the same name, and its 2022 sequel, A New Era.
Elizabeth has resurfaced while filming her new television show, The Talamasca, which is based on a series of books from novelist Anne Rice. She stars as series regular Helen.
And, in doing so, the actor has debuted a striking new look.
Pictures from the set show Elizabeth clad in all-black, her long straight hair flowing in stunning silver.
She is pictured with co-star Nicholas Denton, who plays the mysterious Guy Anatole.
The pair were filming scenes in Manchester – doubling for Central Park, New York, where the series is set. Variety has reported that the show will focus on ‘the men and women responsible for tracking and containing the witches, vampires, and other creatures scattered around the globe.’
The Talamasca follows in the footsteps of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire and Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches as the latest foray into the Anne Rice universe.
Members of The Talamasca have already featured in episodes of the preceding shows – and are expected to pop up again when season one premieres on AMC and AMC+ in late 2025.
Elizabeth is best remembered for the jet-black hair she wore throughout her career, from her 1980s debut – aged only 2.
In recent years, she has become best known for playing Lady Grantham in Downton Abbey and its film sequels.
In addition to decades of film and television work, Elizabeth is also the frontwoman of her own band, Sadie and the Hotheads.
The group formed in 2007 after her guitar teacher (Steve Nelson of the Nelson Brothers) encouraged her to take up songwriting.
Elizabeth and the band have released five albums in total, with The Truth coming out under the star’s own name in 2019, and featuring a guest vocal performance from one Samuel L. Jackson.
In 2015, Elizabeth shared her thoughts on The X-Factor, telling PA how she found it to be ‘painful’ viewing.
She explained: ‘I think of course, it’s a great opportunity for people who have talent to get exposure, but there’s a lot of dangers to the discovery of music by that kind of process.
‘I find it very painful to see people go up and get slapped down so immediately and I think it’s a dangerous habit to get into where everybody is judging within two seconds somebody’s musical expression.’
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She added: ‘My hope would be that people are open to discovering music in different ways, to taking that risk on a new band and really sitting down and listening to them in a live context that goes on more than two seconds and a gong.’