Yahoo Movies Downton Abbey star on "completely unpredictable" new movie
Downton Abbey's Penelope Wilton is excited for the world to see her "unpredictable" new movie The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
Also starring Oscar winner Jim Broadbent in the title role, it's an adaptation of Rachel Joyce's 2012 novel directed by Normal People's Hettie Macdonald. The film charts Harold's 500-mile trek to visit a dying friend.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Wilson explained what appealed to her about the movie.
Related: Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery lands next movie role
"I just thought it was a brilliant story. It's terribly well told. Because you don't know what's going to happen next. You know, sometimes with a book you can sort of predict it. It's completely unpredictable, this story," she said.
"I didn't read the book. And I didn't read it actually, until we were well into the filming of it.
"Because often, when you read a book, you're rather disappointed when you see the script only because they have to leave so much out because you know, you've got an hour and a half for a film, whereas a book might take three days to read.
"And also, in this case, a lot of the descriptions of the places that Harold walks through we see in the film. I took it because I thought it was a wonderful, very, very heartfelt story. And fascinating."
Wilton previously caught up with DS to discuss her World War II drama Operation Mincemeat, which retold a real-life British intelligence scheme of disguising the body of a homeless person as a fictional armed forces captain named William Martin, to fool the Germans into thinking Greece was their next target.
Wilson told us that she was "absolutely astounded" that the idea had been cleared, let alone that the operation would prove successful.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is released in UK cinemas on Friday, April 28.
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