Wearing A Harry Potter Witch's Wardrobe Wasn't Fun For Maggie Smith
In all of Dame Maggie Smith's indisputably illustrious career, her role as Professor McGonagall in the "Harry Potter" franchise is one of the most special ones. The veteran actor's natural charm and warm disposition transform her on-screen, whether she's playing the voice of reason as Dowager Countess in "Downton Abbey" or the no-nonsense Transfiguration Professor Minerva McGonagall. While both roles have catapulted Smith's status from a celebrated, prominent English actress to an international sensation, there's one thing about starring in "Harry Potter" that wasn't necessarily fun for her. And it had something to do with filming in a witch's wardrobe.
As it turns out, robes and pointy hats aren't exactly comfortable attire.
The hats tormented Maggie Smith
Costumes are of immense importance — they represent a character's personality and influence how we perceive them. Like many others, Maggie Smith, who played the deputy headmistress and a professor at the school of Hogwarts, had to wear flowing dress robes and pointy hats to look the part. Always dressed in shades of vibrant emerald green, McGonagall's costume is said to have mirrored her Scottish heritage. While Smith appears to have been comfortable with the robes, she found a challenge in the heavy, pointed hats she had to wear. Here's what the legendary actress has to say about her experience (via Evening Standard):
"I used to find the most exhausting thing was wearing those hats. They're the heaviest things in the world. I had a hat, it was like the Albert Hall, it was huge and so heavy."
"Sometimes [film sets] can just be torment," the actress added, "and then you think: what on earth am I doing here? You're always in some godforsaken location. You just think: oh please, let me out of here!"
She wasn't the only one
When Smith was pressed for the most "tormented roles" in the course of her career, she complained about how it was "Harry Potter" that needed her to wear a hat day after day — before and after filming. The actress admitted that she wasn't the only one who had disliked the witch hats; British-Australian actress Miriam Margoyles, who portrayed the Herbology Professor, Pomona Sprout, had the same complaint.
"I was in the snow for about a week with that daft hat on my head for Harry Potter and sitting in that trailer day after day and not being used – that doesn't make you feel too jolly ... but there were other people in the trailer also moaning, like Miriam Margolyes. You're not alone when you moan."
Most Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry professors, as well as magic folk in the Wizarding World throughout "Harry Potter," were seen wearing pointed black hats to reflect their status as witches and wizards, but it appears to have been personally frustrating for Maggie Smith. The actress joked about how her role in the fantasy-adventure films earned her the attention of "a lot of very small people" who would stop her in the street, demanding to know if she was a cat in the movies.
"One kid once said to me: 'Were you...were you really a cat?' And I heard myself say: 'Just pull yourself together! How could I have been?'" the actress shared.