Miriam Margolyes’ acting career includes a BAFTA-nominated role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence,” “Reds,” “Mulan,” “Call the Midwife” and a lot more, but its her appearance as Professor Sprout in two “Harry Potter” movies that have made her a recognizable face across the world. Not that Margolyes cares too much for the beloved franchise.
Speaking to Vogue UK for a new profile, Margolyes acknowledged that her two “Harry Potter” movies introduced her to an entire new generation of young people but said the franchise “doesn’t mean as much to me as it does to them.”
“For me, ‘Harry Potter’ wasn’t important,” Margolyes said. “I was very glad I got the part and I enjoyed being in it and meeting all the people, but it’s not Charles Dickens.”
However, Margolyes is grateful for the continued love from fans. She played Professor Sprout in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Harry Potter and the Death Hallows – Part 2.”
“People come up to me and say ‘I just love you’, and want to hug me. And that is dazzling,” Margolyes said while remembering a British newspaper once calling her “a national trinket.” “That’s very witty and rather cutting actually. I’d like to be a national treasure, but I don’t know if I really am.”
Margolyes went viral last year for sharing a non-“Harry Potter” acting story on the “I’ve Got News For You” podcast in which she revealed that she disliked working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the 1999 supernatural action movie “End of Days” because he allegedly farted on her face in between filming takes. Margolyes said Schwarzenegger “deliberately” did it and she still hasn’t forgiven him.
“He’s a bit too full of himself and I don’t care for him at all. He’s a Republican, which I don’t like,” Margolyes said of Schwarzenegger. “He was actually quite rude. He farted in my face. Now, I fart, of course, I do — but I don’t fart in people’s faces. He did it deliberately, right in my face.”
“I was playing Satan’s sister and he was killing me, so he had me in a position where I couldn’t escape and lying on the floor. And he just farted,” Margolyes continued. “It wasn’t on film, it was in one of the pauses, but I haven’t forgiven him for it.”
Margolyes most recently appeared in the drama film “My Happy Ending.” directed by Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit