Anjelica Huston dishes on 'Downton Abbey', the End of 'Smash'

Credit: NBC

Though Smash has gone to the TV graveyard, Anjelica Huston is already looking ahead to her next TV project.

Huston reveals in her new memoir, A Story Lately Told, that she would like to rub elbows with the Crawley clan on Downton Abbey, which just finished its fourth season on ITV in the UK (the series returns stateside to Masterpiece on PBS this coming January).

"I love Downton," says Huston. "I was raised in Ireland and England so I could pop into a part. Somebody like the Countess Markievicz (an Irish rebel), who they mentioned last season. Maybe I could make a guest appearance."

If she does land a role on the hit drama, she would be the third Oscar winner to make her way to the program after Dame Maggie Smith (The Dowager Countess) and Shirley MacLaine, who guest-starred in season 3 as the mother of Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern).

However, Huston is less enthusiastic in her assessment of NBC's Smash, the recently-cancelled series on which she played Broadway producer Eileen Rand.

"I think the first year was very, very good," says the Oscar winner, but notes that the second season, in which show creator Theresa Rebeck was replaced by new showrunner Joshua Safran, "didn't really match up to (Rebeck's) standards."

She also sourly noted that her contributions to the creative process in season two were shouted down. "I was basically told to shut up and say the lines."

Huston remained conflicted about the show and its cancellation, saying, "there was a little cry of sadness at parting, but also I can't say I didn't appreciate my liberty once I regained it."

Now let's pretend we don't all miss Smash. (Come on, other people miss Smash, right?)

Via: USA Today