Parts in 'Downton Abbey' and 'Harry Potter' weren't 'satisfying': Maggie Smith

Veteran actor Maggie Smith may have had an extensive, varied career on stage, films and TV, but she doesn't consider her roles in "Downton Abbey" or the "Harry Potter" films as an integral part of her filmography. Smith, most popular for playing Professor Minerva McGonagall in the JK Rowling's world of magic and Dowager Countess Violet Crawley in the period drama, said neither of the parts in the franchises satisfied her as an artiste.

"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," Smith, 84, told the UK's Evening Standard. She said she and the late Alan Rickman, who played Professor Severus Snape, used to joke that their work on the Potter films was made up entirely of reaction shots.

However, Smith added there was a upside to starring in the films, fronted by Daniel Radcliffe, as they helped her to bond with her five grandchildren. The actor also said she would have preferred to be on the stage, but there was no work.

"I wanted to get back to the stage so much because theatre is basically my favourite medium, and I think I felt as though I'd left it all unfinished. But there wasn't anything that came along." Smith recently returned to the stage in Christopher Hampton's "A German Life" at the Bridge Theatre in London.

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