Gretchen Peters Talks with Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Nashville stalwart Peters chats with legendary actress (and fellow musician) McGovern about music, marriage, acting, Downton Abbey, and much more.

By Gretchen Peters and Elizabeth McGovern

6:00 AM EDT on October 18, 2018

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters sits down for a chat with Elizabeth McGovern, the iconic actress from Ordinary People, Once Upon a Time in America and Downton Abbey, who is a talented musician in her own right. The two friends, who connected just a few years ago via Twitter, discuss everything from their mutual commitment to telling women’s stories (especially women over 30), the pluses and minuses of collaborating creatively with one's spouse, the downsides of early success, what songwriters can learn from watching Inside the Actors Studio, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash's love of Downton Abbey, and much more. For more filmmakers and musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Episode recorded by David Waters and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi; the Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn.

The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Gretchen Peters

Gretchen Peters is a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer who received a Grammy nomination and CMA Song of the Year Award in 1995 for Martina McBride’s “Independence Day,” a second Grammy nomination and ACM nomination for Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” in 1996 and a 2003 Golden Globe nomination for her song “Here I Am,” featured in the Dreamworks film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Her discography boasts over 120 recordings with many iconic artists, including George Jones, George Strait, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, Pam Tillis, Anne Murray, Randy Travis, Neil Diamond, the Neville Brothers, Bryan Adams and Bonnie Raitt, Her eighth studio album Blackbirds features a who’s who of modern American roots music (Jerry Douglas, Jason Isbell, Jimmy LaFave, Suzy Bogguss and more). You can follow her on Twitter here.

Elizabeth McGovern

Elizabeth McGovern’s career spans theatre, film and television and music. Elizabeth is most well-known, at the moment, for her role as Lady Cora in multiple award-winning television show Downton Abbey’, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy and has won three SAG ensemble awards. She recently appeared in The Commuter, opposite Liam Neeson, and The Wife, starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater. Elizabeth received an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for her role in Ragtime, her second feature film, following her debut in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People whilst she was still a student at Julliard. Other major film roles have included starring opposite Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America and Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage in Racing with the Moon. She has worked with the great film directors Steven Soderbergh, Curtis Hanson, Milos Forman, Sergio Leone, Robert Redford, and Simon Curtis (her husband). McGovern also fronts and writes the songs for the band Sadie and the Hotheads, and Postcard from Heaven, her fourth album (and the first under her own name), is forthcoming in December. For more info, visit her official website.