Downton Abbey - Dowager Countess of Grantham (Violet Crawley ♔ Maggie Smith) #3 - "It seems a pity to miss such good pudding." - Page 20

Lucresiare · 10-18-2014, 12:33 PM

Dame Maggie was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by the Queen
Downton Abbey's Dame Maggie Smith honoured by the Queen in Windsor Castle ceremony | Daily Mail Online

I didn't know she had had a breast cancer 7 years ago. Glad she survived it !

carrie.suze · 10-18-2014, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucresiare (View Post)

Dame Maggie was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by the Queen
Downton Abbey's Dame Maggie Smith honoured by the Queen in Windsor Castle ceremony | Daily Mail Online

I didn't know she had had a breast cancer 7 years ago. Glad she survived it !

I didn't know that either, she's amazing, so glad she's still with us too.

nice honour for her as well, I thought becoming a Dame was the highest there is, I could almost see her as a Queen too, she'd be more interesting than the real one.

more fun being an actress though.

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 10-19-2014, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucresiare (View Post)

Dame Maggie was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by the Queen
Downton Abbey's Dame Maggie Smith honoured by the Queen in Windsor Castle ceremony | Daily Mail Online

Thanks for this! And yes she has cancer (used to) and has really battled her way out of it while doing the HP movies.

Here's a vid of the ceremony:

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 10-21-2014, 12:02 AM

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***L i N d $ @ y*** · 10-25-2014, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Dame Maggie Smith has swapped her Downton Abbey finery for a less glamorous look.

The actress is filming The Lady In The Van, the true story of a homeless woman who lived for 15 years outside the home of playwright Alan Bennett.

Bennett detailed his often strained relationship with the eccentric Miss Shepherd in his diaries, and later turned it into a play.

It is now being made into a BBC film directed by Nicholas Hytner. Dame Maggie was unrecognisable in a flat cap and dirty raincoat as she filmed her scenes with Alex Jennings, who plays Bennett. James Corden was also present, playing a local market trader.

The 79-year-old actress, who plays the Dowager Countess in Downton and recently filmed a special episode with George Clooney, starred in the stage version of The Lady In The Van in 1999.

Dame Maggie Smith as homeless Lady In The Van: first pictures - Telegraph

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 10-29-2014, 03:16 AM

I can't wait to see where this SL pans out.

It is not our first secret assignation.
I always feel more comfortable leaving the past in the past.

***dancing in the rain*** · 10-29-2014, 06:24 AM

This amuses me so much

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 10-30-2014, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancing in the rain (View Post)

This amuses me so much

Haha, I love it. Violet still has the best lines.

Some on-set pics of Dame Maggie's upcoming film "The Lady in the Van."

Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith begs on the streets while eating a burger for new film role | Daily Mail Online

***dancing in the rain*** · 11-07-2014, 04:51 AM

Thanks for those! It's interesting to see her in such a different role.

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-08-2014, 03:12 AM

This is a wonderful interview worth reading.

Quote:

Even in England, the consequences of becoming a television celebrity (more shivers) through her formidable impersonation of Violet, Downton’s Dowager Countess of Grantham, can be unnerving. “I don’t go to places and if I do I nearly always have to have a friend. It’s very difficult when you’re on your own because you have no escape.”

Unless she’s quite rude?

“That doesn’t get you very far, although I think I am sometimes, because it can be quite scary, you know, if a lot of them come at you.”

The jostling curiosity of a herd of bullocks comes to mind. How does she deal with it?

“Run away mostly. I just make a beeline and go, go, go. It is hard. I don’t know how people cope with it. What do they do, these huge movie stars? What the hell do they do? Perhaps they never go out. I certainly don’t think they walk around on their own. If they want a word of advice, don’t do it in Paris.”

Her voice carries a withering sort of incredulity with echoes of Violet Crawley (“What is a weekend?”) and Harry Potter’s Prof Minerva McGonagall. This is vintage Smith, refusing to put herself in the stellar cast where she so obviously belongs, deliciously affronted by vulgar curiosity and yet fully acknowledging both the privilege and the absurdity of being in demand at the age of… we might as well say 92.

“I’m always older than God in these parts now,” she says with benign resignation. Back in 1991, when she was playing Granny Wendy Darling in Hook, Steven Spielberg asked a friend of hers in the costume department: “How old is Maggie Smith?”

“My friend said without hesitation: 'Ninety-two’. I’ve been that ever since. They don’t need to make me up any more, I’m afraid. I’ve caught up with myself.

“I was doing a scene with Penelope Wilton [the righteous Isobel Crawley in Downton] the other day and I got up with my stick and started wobbling around. 'Why am I acting old?’ I said. 'Why am I doing this? I am old!’ I’m trying to work it out: if I’m my age, the Dowager Countess of Grantham must be about 110 by now. She has become a monster.

“Penelope and I have a great time. We play endless Bananagrams. She makes me laugh a lot and we talk about the books we read.”

Maggie Smith interview for My Old Lady: 'If you have been around long enough you are an icon' - Telegraph

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-11-2014, 10:12 PM

Violet Crawley - Downton Abbey, 5x08

***dancing in the rain*** · 11-12-2014, 04:18 AM

Lovely pictures!

She is so down to earth, I love how she says "these huge movie stars" like she isn't one when she's one of the biggest.

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-12-2014, 10:17 PM

She doesn't see herself that way and that's what I love about Dame Maggie. She's so grounded and down to earth.

Just a few more posts to go before the new thread. I'll have a look if there was a suggested title for the new one.

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-14-2014, 11:25 PM

Maggie Smith filming The Lady in the Van, in Broadstairs, Kent (13th November, 2014)

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***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-16-2014, 10:26 PM

New thread


Fan Forum > Archived Television Shows > Downton Abbey > Dowager Countess of Grantham (Violet Crawley ♔ Maggie Smith) #3 - "It seems a pity to miss such good pudding."