This Friday, Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery trades in Lady Mary’s primness for her first proper action thriller, Non-Stop. In the suspenseful feature, which feels very much like Speed in the air, Liam Neeson plays a demon-plagued air marshall who must defuse a post-9/11 in-flight crisis with the help of a mysterious passenger (Julianne Moore), and two steely flight attendants played by Dockery and awards-season darling, Lupita Nyong’o. To discuss the film and Downton’s season finale this past Sunday, Dockery phoned us earlier this week.

V.F. Hollywood: Hi Michelle! How are you?

Michelle Dockery: I actually just got a call because my flight was changed. [Over-dramatic movie-trailer voice] I hope there’s not a threat!

Well if there is, you will be prepared. It was so much fun seeing you in an action movie. Is that something you were looking for?

No! I loved the script, really liked the role, and the chance to work with Liam and Julianne—really, that was all it took. The fact that it was just a different genre from anything I’ve done before was just a bonus.

It was a new genre for Julianne too. Did Liam give you any kind of action movie primer before filming started?

He didn’t have to because I love action films. I loved the Die Hard films growing up and the Taken movies. They’re so entertaining, and I enjoy being on the edge of my seat.

Did you shadow any flight attendants to prepare?

Yes, we had a woman named Debbie who worked for Delta, whom we called “Debbie Delta.” She did some very basic training with us and was on set in case anyone had a question. To be honest, we didn’t get a chance to do any of the standard procedures because we got into the action pretty quickly.

I bet Debbie Delta was jealous of your chic flight attendant uniforms.

Weren’t those great? Lupita and I loved those dresses, with our leather shoulders. I should have worn that dress to the premiere.

How was it working with Lupita?

Wonderful, we are really close friends. It was such a wonderful opportunity to be in New York for two months. That’s the great thing about this profession—you meet people, some of whom you’ll be friends with for life. We had an instant friendship, and I am so proud of her with all that’s been happening.

I was very happy to see you get a good swing in at the end of the movie. Did that require action training?

I worked with [stunt coordinator] Mark Vanselow—who I think worked with Liam on 15 films—which was really fun. It’s very different from anything I’ve done before. I would have done more, actually. I’m fascinated by the choreography of those fight scenes. It’s quite amazing. It’s like a dance.

Who was the biggest Downton Abbey fan on set?

Julianne, Julianne, Julianne. She was hilarious. Every morning, she would be like, “Hi! So . . . I just read that Dan Stevens is leaving. What happened? Does he die?” [Laughs] And I found it really hard to lie to Julianne because it’s Julianne Moore, you know? She was would sit me down and want me to go through all of the gossip. If she knew something about a storyline coming up, she would want to know about it. And for me, that was such a wonderful thing, because she is someone I look up to. She is very funny. She had me in stitches.

So what happened when she asked about Dan Stevens’s character Matthew dying? You said it was hard to lie to her . . .

I just made this face . . . and [Julianne] said, “Oh noooooooooooo!” [Laughing] I told her, “You asked me!”

This season we saw Lady Mary get down and dirty, very literally. How was it filming that pig scene?

I just knew that I had to go for it. There was something really liberating, actually, playing Mary and being completely covered in mud and falling over. I loved it. When I read that scene, I was like, “This is madness.” I remember coming out of my trailer in this beautiful purple dress, and the costume department was standing there with buckets of mud, and they were all wearing rubber gloves, and said, “Are you ready?” I was like, “Go for it.” They covered me completely. I felt like a kid again actually.