Ralph Fiennes solemnly swears that Maggie Smith was up to good fun on the Harry Potter set. In fact, the Schindler’s List actor reminisced about his time with the two-time Oscar winner, who died Sept. 27 at the age of 89, and the wit she brought with her to the set of the magical franchise.
"I have to say I never worked with Maggie much, except on Harry Potter ,” Ralph told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Oct. 15. “But she had a wonderful, rather lethal sense of humor.
” And it seems the Downton Abbey —who portrayed Professor Minerva McGonagall opposite Ralph’s Lord Voldemort in the wizarding saga—shared that humor in subtle ways. “She gave me a sort of ironic side eye when we were doing one of the big confrontational scenes,” Ralph continued, “as if to say 'Darling what are we doing here?'” And the In Bruges actor continues to cherish those on-set memories. “I have admired her for many, many years,” Ralph shared.
“She's one of our great actresses. One of our great greats. Amazing wit.
She was a one-off. A great actress of many years work. I wish I had seen her on stage as a young woman.
It’s a great loss, there’s no question. A great loss.” In the time since her passing, many of Maggie’s Harry Potter colleagues have shared their recollections of her sense of humor on set—including Daniel Radcliffe .
“She was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue,” the Merrily We Roll Along star—who played the titular boy wiza.
