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Lady Sybil no more: ‘Downton’ star shifts to ‘Harlots’

In this image released by Hulu, Jessica Brown-Findlay portrays Charlotte Wells, an 18th-century prostitute in Hulu's drama series "Harlots." (Liam Daniel/Hulu via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If there’s any doubt that Jessica Brown-Findlay has left Lady Sybil of “Downton Abbey” far behind, consider a recent interview with her by phone from London.

Findlay was discussing her role as Charlotte, an 18th-century prostitute in Hulu’s drama series “Harlots,” while commuting by bus to perform that night as Ophelia in “Hamlet.”

If others remain fixated on the popular character she last played five years ago in “Downton”“I think the British press think I might be that person” — she’s focused firmly on the work at hand.

“Harlots” is a bold showcase for Findlay, whose character is a madam’s daughter who went into the family business, and the rest of its female-dominated cast. But women also are the power behind the screen as writers, producers and in other key positions — a change that Brown found richly rewarding.

“Normally, when I’m reading (a script), I’m like, ‘That character’s brilliant’ — and it’s a guy,” she said with a laugh. But in “Harlots,” the women are fully formed and as intriguing as any man.

“It’s really exciting to allow female characters to be frustrating and imperfect and infuriating and funny,” Findlay said. Her co-stars include Samantha Morton as her mother, Margaret, and Lesley Manville as Lydia, a rival madam with a vicious streak.

The history-based story was a revelation to Findlay.

“I was aware it was a time when London was exploding economically, doing incredibly well, and with that came lavish lifestyles,” she said. For the prostitutes and madams and catered to men with disposable income, the reward was the ability to “own property, have rights over their own bodies, make a living and survive.”

The idea of survival by any means was the harsh reality for women who lacked connections or a man, whether husband, father or otherwise, as their protector, said Moira Buffini, who created and produced the series with Alison Newman.

A woman without such a safety net might end up in the sex industry, said Buffini, who says the tally is startlingly large when all connected to it are included.

“One in five women were working as sex workers or in associated businesses, like cleaners or cooks in the house,” she said. “There were three sex shops in Covent Garden; condom makers; back street abortionists, and the child-minders who looked after the prostitute’s children while they worked.”

London’s Covent Garden, now a popular shopping and tourist area, was the city’s version of a red-light district in the 1700s. It even boasted a guidebook to individual prostitutes, “Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies.”

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