Maggie Smith

Image of Maggie Smith
Alan Rickman was such a terrific actor, and that was such a terrific character that he played. And it was a joy to be with him. We used to laugh together because we ran out of reaction shots. They were always - when everything had been done and the children were finished, they would turn the camera around and we'd have to do various reaction shots of amazement or sadness and things. We used to say we'd got to about number 200-and-something and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was a joy.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Running
Image of Maggie Smith
It was - it's always very nice to be somebody rather grand.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Nice
Image of Maggie Smith
I think he [Leonardo DiCaprio] is a terrific actor. And I've - I've been rooting and voting for him since "Gilbert Grape." I thought he was so amazing in that one. He was a young man, really very young boy.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Boys
Image of Maggie Smith
I find it very difficult to do anything on my own now because people recognize me. This has never happened to me before because I haven't really done television before. But I suppose if you're in people's rooms all the time, I don't know - I was thinking the other night with people like DiCaprio and, you know, those big stars and Cate Blanchett, and you just think how did they exist? It's so difficult. And I think now it's very intrusive because of these cellphones, you know, with cameras.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Stars
Image of Maggie Smith
Sort of what you do in drama school when asked to play something way out of your reach. Anyway, we used to laugh a lot about that. I used to say I'm not going to act old, Penelope. I'll just be myself.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Drama
Image of Maggie Smith
There are responsibilities which are parental responsibilities and those are the types of things we prepare the next generation for, but no one tells you how to answer the kids' questions in the backseat of the car when they want to know what the world is for or where they came from or why any of this is happening.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Responsibility
Image of Maggie Smith
I just did adore Daniel - Daniel Radcliffe, who I had worked with before "Harry Potter" and spent a long time telling all the producers they had to see him because I thought he was so terrific. And it's been sad thinking about it because of Alan Rickman.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Thinking
Image of Maggie Smith
I'm hopeless - all I know is that time is going past so fast.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Past
Image of Maggie Smith
It's funny to be pigeonholed so late in life but there we are.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Late
Image of Maggie Smith
My kids are really learning everything from scratch. It's our job to be their tour guides and camp counselors and orientation people. That's a weird responsibility, especially in a world that feels as good as it feels bad.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Kids
Image of Maggie Smith
I'm not my mother. And so I'm not raising my kids in the same way. I don't respond in the same way. We don't spend our days in the same way because I don't necessarily enjoy the same things she likes to do.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Mother
Image of Maggie Smith
I'm so moved to hear Celia Johnson again, so lovely.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Lovely
Image of Maggie Smith
I think there's always great tension because there never seems to be enough - there is always pressure. There's always pressure because there isn't enough time. There's never enough time for a movie, it seems to me. Never.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Thinking
Image of Maggie Smith
The drama school was in Oxford - and it's funny to think of it, but in those days when I started out the University was nearly all male. And they certainly weren't mixed.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Drama
Image of Maggie Smith
It made it feel impossible, quite honestly, because filming - you film come rain, come shine, come whatever. And it did rain a lot. And of course, that's what she must have gone through. Of course it rained; of course it was cold... But, you know, it really was quite hard to be out there in the rain.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Rain
Image of Maggie Smith
I had no idea that that was around in the family anywhere. Maybe it never was. But - so they broke the way for me, if you know what I mean. I have no idea where I got the idea from to do what I do. But I think they - Ian and Alistair, my brothers kind of opened a lot of doors for me onto the world - you know, made it seem to be a very, very interesting place.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Brother
Image of Maggie Smith
There were male colleges, and there were very few female colleges.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: College
Image of Maggie Smith
A lot of writing about being a mother is not so much writing about the kids themselves. They become placeholders for the shift that happens when you're suddenly in charge of other people.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Mother
Image of Maggie Smith
If someone is going to talk about the process of making a film, it should be the director.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Film
Image of Maggie Smith
I'm just glad to get any role... the fact that they're all 90 is neither here nor there! Actually, it was Hook that started it. I think it was Peggy Ashcroft who couldn't do the part and somebody was asked how old was I and would I be able to do the part, and the person replied "92" very quickly. And so I've been stuck ever since! But I'm actually very grateful.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Grateful
Image of Maggie Smith
I'd done "Gosford Park," a film that Julian Fellowes had written that Robert Altman directed.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Done
Image of Maggie Smith
There was nobody in the family who had ever done anything like that before. My brothers - I had two brothers. They were twins. They both became architects. They were both six years older.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Brother
Image of Maggie Smith
Where you get people who want to take a picture of you or take a picture of them with you.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: People
Image of Maggie Smith
I think everybody who was in it thought they were all going to be Eartha Kitt or be big stars. That didn't happen, but it was a wake-up call to have one's first professional job on Broadway, I must say.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: Jobs
Image of Maggie Smith
It seems to me there is a change in what audiences want to see…I can only hope that’s correct, because there’s an awful lot of people of my age around now and we outnumber the others.
- Maggie Smith
Collection: People