Showing posts with label Miriam Margolyes. Show all posts

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Miriam Margolyes / ‘The closest I’ve come to death? When the media reported my imminent demise’

Miriam Margolyes: ‘Describe myself in three words? Short. Fat. Jewish.’ Photographer: David Kelly. Hair and makeup: Ginelle Dale. Stylist: Andi Plowman/

Interview

Miriam Margolyes: ‘The closest I’ve come to death? When the media reported my imminent demise’

The actor on disappointing her mother, the only time she will tell a lie, and a terrible spat with Glenda Jackson

Rosanna Greenstreet
Saturday 19 July 2025

Born in Oxford, Miriam Margolyes, 84, began acting at Cambridge University. In 1994, she won a Bafta for her role in The Age of Innocence and was later cast as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films. Her stage credits include Wicked, The Vagina Monologues and Dickens’ Women; her TV work includes Trollied and Blackadder. In 2002, she was made OBE, and in 2022 received a BBC Audio Drama lifetime achievement award. She takes Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits to the Edinburgh fringe at the Pleasance at EICC, Pentland theatre from 9-24 August. She lives in London.

John Swannell / Fishlove

Asli Bayram

John Swannell

Fishlove

Annina Roescheisen

Miriam Margolyes / This much I know / ‘I adore being Jewish but I’m not a believer in God’

Miriam Margolyes
Photograph by Andy Gotts

Miriam Margolyes:

‘I adore being Jewish

but I’m not a believer in God’

‘People think I'm funny and fluffy but I can switch on a sixpence to utter despair'

This much I know

The actor, 75, on being a lesbian, her regret at not losing weight, and, like, sloppy use of the English language

Shahesta Shaitly
Saturday 18 June 2016 14.00 BST

Confidence was the backbone of my upbringing. I was an only child, so I was spoilt, loved and given an enormous amount of confidence by my parents. Neither were confident themselves: my mother was uneducated and felt inferior. She was determined that I would go to university. She’d say, “I want you to be able to talk to anybody about anything” – and I can.

There’s a strong melancholic streak in me. People tend to think I’m funny and fluffy, but I can switch on a sixpence from extreme happiness to utter despair. I’m aware that doesn’t make it easy for people sometimes.

My mother died of a stroke in 1974, and for a long time I blamed myself. She was utterly devastated when I told her I was a lesbian not long before. My parents couldn’t understand it – they were disgusted – but continued to love me. I just thought, “This is what I am, let’s get on with it.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a pig of a man. We worked together [on the blockbuster End of Days] in 1999, and although he was relatively professional with me – because he didn’t fancy me – he was awfully gropey with women he was interested in. He thought a lot of himself, but I wasn’t surprised: he was a bodybuilder from Austria who went on to became a worldwide star.

Miriam Margolyes
Photo by John Swannell

I adore being Jewish but I’m not a believer in God. Jewish people dislike me intensely because I’m pro-Palestine. I just endeavour to do good and cross barriers, and I don’t feel sorry about that at all.

Lazy, imprecise thought is a bore. The prolific use of the word “like” is the most annoying example I can think of. It’s a sign of a sloppy mental process.

JK Rowling is a fabulous woman. And I just love the fact that the richest woman in Britain is a writer – what a brilliant state of affairs. But Harry Potter didn’t make me rich [Margolyes played Professor Pomona Sprout]: I was pleasantly paid, and it was just extraordinary to be a part of something that will mean generations of children know who I am.

Miriam Margolyes

I can’t bear children. I support children’s charities, I just don’t want them around me. It’s not very admirable, but it’s the truth.

Marriage is for straight people. I’ve been with my partner Heather for 48 years – although she lives in Holland and I live in England. We’ve had a civil partnership, but the thought of referring to one another as “wife” makes me feel sick. I don’t understand why gay people are so anxious to get married.

I should have lost weight when I was younger. I’m a fat woman and to be 75 and fat is just stupid. I feel very silly for not being able to do it. It’s one of my greatest regrets.

Miriam Margolyes voices Where Is Peter Rabbit? at the Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, 27 June-4 September

THE GUARDIAN