He’s an acclaimed English actor who starred in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey. And now Dan Stevens is the latest confirmed actor joining Will Ferrell’s upcoming Netflix movie Eurovision.
Dan will star as Alexander Lemtov, a Russian contestant competing in the song contest. As you already know, he’ll play alongside Blades of Glory actor Will Ferrell and Mean Girls legend Rachel McAdams. They’ll play aspiring Icelandic musicians Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir, along with Pierce Brosnan who stars as Erick Erickssong, “Lars’ father and the most handsome man in Iceland.”
The English actor is known for his role as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey. A pivotal character and subsequent heartthrob, he played the aristocratic character for a total of 25 episodes. More recently he made a turn in Beauty and the Beast and has buffeted his fame in the US as part of the cast of Legion. He received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2013.
Could this be a preview of the Russian entry for the movie?
A fan filmed this clip during the grand final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Ever since then fans have speculated that it could be the Russian entry for the Netflix production.
And while it’s possible that they used the venue to record live audience reactions for the film, it’s unclear if this song is real or just a decoy. Given the lack of musical quality on show, we’ll hope it’s the latter! Either way there’s definitely a lot to be excited about.
What’s the plot of the Netflix Eurovision movie?
Details of the film are being kept tightly under wraps. So far we know actor and producer Will Ferrell (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Get Hard) will star alongside Dan Stevens and Rachael McAdams, who famously gave life to Regina George in Mean Girls.
The film is being directed by David Dobkin, which completes a rather fabulous reunion. He directed Will and Rach in the 2005 romantic comedy Wedding Crashers.
Fans of Hatari, Greta Salome and Silvia Night will be thrilled to hear that Iceland is given a starring role in the movie. Iceland Review reports that the film will see Will and Rachael play Icelanders — presumably hellbent on a song contest win. The paper speculates that the country may have been chosen because it’s never won in its 33 appearances. It’s not a bad theory: after all, Hollywood loves a good underdog story, right?
It’s well-known that Elf star Will is married to a Swede who introduced him to Eurovision, and that he was on-the-ground in Lisbon researching the event. Iceland Review reports that Rachel, who you’ll remember from The Notebook and The Time Traveler’s Wife, was present in Tel Aviv.
RUV, the Iceland broadcaster, has revealed that many of the characters will have Icelandic names. But apparently they will be deliberately silly and OTT. Local actors in the movie include Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson.
An official press release has confirmed that the movie is currently in production in the UK and Iceland.
Húsavík — the rumoured location in Iceland — rests on the northern coast of Iceland and is a centre of whale watching. Among its top attractions is a wooden church, and also a civic museum that features a stuffed polar bear.
Are you excited to see Dan Stevens join the film? What other singing actors could you see co-starring in this? And what’s your best guess for the plot of the film? Let us know down below.
Could we add Valentina and Serhat as well? 😀
Hopefully, the Russian contestant won’t be the villain of the film 😉
This sounds like it’s gonna be the most cringe thing ever
This is sounding like it’s going to be a lot of fun!
Let’s be honest. Most of us won’t be interested on the cast, until actual Eurovision people cameos are announced. I mean, I’ve never watched Downton Abbey to begin with.
What about Legion?
Legion is really god once you get into it. I’m shocked and delighted as Dan is my cousin. My dad’s brother’s son. Cool. (I don’t know him that well though. he is much younger than me. One day I will get round to watching his version of The Beast.
Apart from maybe Roma Netflix original movies aren’t exactly anything to brag about. Most of them are either outright terrible or just OK. And Will Ferrell doesn’t draw audience either. I predict Razzies..
Either way I skip
God forbid they get a Russian to play a Russian. I wonder which other British actors will have to pretend to be all the Icelanders. Oh, and hell no to “the most handsome man in Iceland”. I personally know like 20 real Icelandic men way hotter. What a load of … this thing is.
Dan Stevens does kind of have the look of a Sergey Lazarev type. And the hottest man in Iceland is either the late great Stefan Karl Stefansson or the bearded guy from Pollaponk, hard to say which.
I’m sure there are many hot russian actors who speaks english fluently and “look russian”. Ofc the film will focus on a northern european country, nobody thought it will be on eastern european one. We are there only when they need somebody to make fun of
To be fair, I also think it will be a rather pathetic depiction of Iceland. Just like those awful German crime or romantic movies taking place in Sweden, Iceland, UK and so on, all with German actors speaking German. They can’t even pronounce their own character’s names correctly.
you got a point there, which is why i’ve been against this idea in the first place. i think this film would be a mockery of our fave contest. if the film has to be made then why don’t choose someone who appreciate the contest and all of its aspects? i sincerely doubt that person is wlll ferrell. why iceland tho? why not sweden? sweden would at least make sense. or ukraine.
Because Will Ferrel was the one who pitched this idea in the first place?
His wife is a fan , she is Swedish I think and got him into it.
Loving this casting.
Huh! Nifty. I mean, he can sing, so it makes sense.
He’s a fun guy done a variety of movies like THE GUEST./ Will see how he does in this. wonder if he watched the show I know my uncle did. lol