Maggie Smith, 84, reveals she didn’t find Harry Potter and Downton Abbey roles ‘satisfying’ because she ‘didn’t really feel she was acting’
She has had a stage, film and television career which has spanned more than 68 years.
But Dame Maggie Smith has revealed she didn’t feel ‘satisfied’ with her roles in the Harry Potter and the Downton Abbey franchise.
The actress, 84, is perhaps best known as the steely Professor Minerva McGonagall whom she portrayed in the eight film adaptations of J.K Rowling’s literary works.
Dame Maggie Smith has revealed she didn’t feel ‘satisfied’ with her roles in the Harry Potter and the Downton Abbey franchise (pictured last week)
Speaking in this week’s issue of ES magazine, Maggie said: ‘I am deeply grateful for the work in Potter and indeed Downton but it wasn’t what you’d call satisfying, I didn’t really feel I was acting in those things.’
Maggie starred as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey (2010–2015), for which she won three Emmys, her first non-ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award, and her third Golden Globe.
Talking about why she decided to pursue a career in acting, she added: ‘Honest to God, I have no idea where the urge [to act] came from. It was such a ghastly time and we didn’t go to the theatre.
Iconic: The actress, 84, is perhaps best known as Professor Minerva McGonagall whom she portrayed in the eight film adaptations of J.K Rowling’s literary works (pictured 2003)
Critical acclaim: Maggie starred as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey (2010–2015), for which she won three Emmys
The full interview: This week’s issue of ES Magazine out December, 5 2019
‘I got into terrible trouble once because the neighbours took me to the cinema on a Sunday, but I had a wonderful teacher, Dorothy Bartholomew, who also taught Miriam Margolyes, and who encouraged me.’
After a long-spanning career in the industry and experiencing both highs and lows, Maggie didn’t want to encourage her sons Chris Larkin, 52, Toby, 50, whom she has with her ex-husband Robert Stephens, to follow in her footsteps.
Meanwhile, Maggie recently said she admires any young woman who attempts to join the film industry nowadays because it’s all about having to ‘strip off every second’.
She said earlier this year: ‘I think they are so brave, the young actresses of today. They seem to have to strip off every second. I can’t imagine how they cope with it today, I really don’t. They are required to do the most extraordinary things.
‘If I was asked to start now, I just don’t think I could, seriously. It’s difficult to imagine myself at that age because girls are starting even younger than how young I was [when I started]. I think it’s very, very, very hard now.’
The full interview appears in this week’s issue of ES Magazine out December, 5 2019.
Her side of the story: Maggie said: ‘I am deeply grateful for the work in Potter and indeed Downton but it wasn’t what you’d call satisfying’ (pictured last week)
Source: Read Full Article