Did you ever feel that sometimes Dame Maggie Smith has been phoning it in as the Dowager Countess in Downtown Abbey? Did you think that despite being droll and funny she might have been playing obvious notes that we’ve seen from her before. Well you are not alone. The Dame herself agress as she told ES Magazine...
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.
Perhaps that is why she returned to the London stage this year. She played Joseph Goebbels’ secretary in the Christopher Hampton one-woman play A German Life. The awards magnet that she is, she recently won best actress at Evening Standard theatre awards. In the same interview she acknowledged that it was hard to go back to the stage after many years absence.
I suddenly felt twice as old as I actually was. And also, when you haven’t done a show for a long time, there’s something pretty dumb about doing it totally on your own.
It’s delightful to see her challenging herself at this stage of her career and hope to see more of that on screen. Where do you think are her chances to score any awards love this season lie? Perhaps SAG?