Steven Waddington Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey, 2010-2015.     The legend insists that Waddington auditioned for Bates. Maybe. However, the series creator Julian Fellowes always stated that Bates was written for Coyle. Just as their mother-son roles were wrtten specifically for Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville. Copyright © 2023 Crawley's Casting Calls. All Rights Reserved. Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.