‘Sherlock Star Amanda Abbington Says “Nepotism” Helped Her Land Role In BBC Drama

Amanda Abbington has revealed she believes “nepotism” helped land her role in hit BBC drama Sherlock.

Abbington was cast as Mary Watson, the wife of Sherlock Holmes’ friend and detective partner Doctor John Watson in 2014. At the time, Abbington was in a long-term relationship with Martin Freeman, who played Watson.

“Because I was with Martin at the time, there was a lot of [accusations of] nepotism being banded about,” she told the Full Disclosure podcast. “It’s true, it was that.

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“Both Mark [Gatiss] and Steven [Moffat, the show’s writers] said they were trying to figure out who the best person would be to play Mary and they thought it would be the person who was going out with him.

“It made sense. And we’d worked together on many things.”

Sherlock, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch as the genius sleuth, ran on the BBC and PBS Masterpiece between 2010 and 2017 and was created by Moffat and Gatiss. Abbington played Mary for three years from 2014 before going on to star in shows such as ITV’s Mr Selfridge and this year’s Channel 5 miniseries Desperate Measures.

Deadline has reached out to the BBC, producer Hartswood Films, Gatiss and Moffat for comment.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Abbington revealed she had auditioned for Season 2 of Ricky Gervais’ BBC comedy The Office for the role of Rachel – playing the girlfriend of Freeman’s Tim character – but was unsuccessful. Abbington and Freeman divorced in 2016.

The debate around nepotism in entertainment has flared up in recent months, with the ‘nepo babies’ conversation centering on the children of actors or celebrities who find early success. Just this week, O’Shea Jackson Jr, son of O’Shea Jackson (aka Ice Cube), said ignoring opportunities presented to him through his father would be “disrespectful to everything he had to go through,” while Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’ daughter Lily-Rose Depp acknowledged she was “privileged” but added, “I can definitely say nothing is going to get you the part except being right for the part.”

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