“Don’t be funny, just call me Maggie”: thanks to Maggie Smith, Daniel Radcliffe was able to play Harry Potter

Without him, Daniel Radcliffe would probably never have played Harry Potter on the big screen and thus gained international fame. In 2021 interview with Stephen ColbertThe British actress revealed that it was fellow countrywoman Maggie Smith, who played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the wizarding saga, who recommended her role as the little witch at Hogwarts.

Before they became famous in the magical world of JK Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe and Maggie Smith worked together in 1999 on a TV film about David Copperfield, which was produced by the BBC. A collaboration that apparently pleased the actor to the point that the latter, accordingly, will put forward the young boy’s name for the desired role of Harry Potter.

“I didn’t know who he was.”

“Maggie Smith was the person who recommended Harry Potter and got me the role”announced Radcliffe on the set of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “I first met her when I was nine, I didn’t know who she was. My parents were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re working with Maggie Smith, that’s huge’, but by the time I was 9, I wasn’t a fan. Miss Brody’s good years, so I didn’t know who he was.

“So I met Maggie Smith without fear, without embarrassment, like a nine-year-old boy”continues the actor. “I knew she was a lady, so I asked her, those were the first words that came out of her mouth, if she wanted to call me lady. She was immediately charmed, she answered: “No, don’t make fun of me. Just call me Maggie.” The (magical) story was going on…

A “not very stimulating” role

Paradoxically, if the character played by the actor was very appreciated by fans of the Harry Potter world, the actor did not find his role very stimulating, as he explained in the columns. standardin 2019.

“I’m deeply grateful that I was able to work on Potter and Downtown, but it wasn’t what you’d call fulfilling. I didn’t really feel like I had control over those things.”

adding that he and Alan Rickman, who played Professor Severus Snape and disappeared in 2016, joke that their work on the Harry Potter films consists mainly of appearing in “reaction shots”; or reaction shots where we see them react to what just happened).

At least a little harsh on himself, because despite this reserve, he left a mark in the memory of fans.