Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern has said after she found stardom as a 19-year-old she appreciated older film industry men wanting sex - and she urged female actors to now 'own' that part of their lives.

McGovern, who plays Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham in Downton, said she found the many sexual experiences during her twenties, after she starred in Robert Redford directed Ordinary People, 'educational' and wanted them.

She said: 'I think back on that whole time. Of course there were lots of sexual experiences.

'And now this kind of recent way that people have started to look again at work practices has been very interesting for me, because when I think back on my early professional life I have to say and take responsibility for the fact that I was as interested in having sexual experiences as the guys.'

'And I have to say I wanted it and appreciated it, and sometimes I think that women should own that a bit in their journey professionally.

'I can only speak for myself.

'For me, I had what I consider to be very educational experiences with different people along that way during that decade, and it was very good for me.

'I really needed it.'

She said it was 'part of the process for sure' of growing up.

Asked on the Rosebud podcast if there had been any unhappy experiences, she said: 'No.'

The actor, nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Ragtime a year after Ordinary People, said while new opportunities were opening up for her she was still 'derailed' by losing touch with her high school friends.

The American-born actor, now 63, who lives in London with her British director husband Simon Curtis, added on the Rosebud podcast: 

'Right after I graduated high school (came) what I feel in retrospect is sort of a cataclysmic turn of events, which was for one reason or another I was suddenly for a short period of time a 'movie star'.

'I was in high school and we were all thinking about graduating and what we were going to do and where we were going to go.'

'I was auditioning for drama schools, and they were looking for kids to be in a movie that was being cast called Ordinary People that Robert Redford was directing.

'That kick started a career that led to me being in director Milos Forman's Ragtime the next year, and so it felt like there was a snowball career happening.

'I say cataclysmic because it really slightly derailed me. I suddenly felt very separated from all the friendships I'd formed in high school.

'I did have a kind of boyfriend - that was a sort of physical awakening. And actually a really lovely guy that I'm sometimes in touch with still.'

Elizabeth is still working hard over 40 years after first finding fame. Next up for the actress is the new TV show The Talamasca, which she is currently shooting in Manchester.

The drama serves as part of AMC's Anne Rice Immortal Universe alongside Interview With The Vampire and Mayfair Witches. 

Inspired by the works of novelist Anne Rice, The Talamasca will follow the secretive society of the same name, who are the 'men and women responsible for tracking and containing the witches, vampires and other creatures scattered around the globe.'   

Elizabeth is also working on filming the third Downton Abbey movie with her co-stars Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael.

It will have been a difficult time for the cast in recent months after the loss of actress Maggie Smith who played the iconic Violet Crawley in the series. 

The full interview can be heard on today's Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast available on all major platforms