The Harry Potter franchise was filled with a magically talented cast who brought the roles from J.K. Rowling’s series to life. While many of the franchise’s actors look back on all of the Wizarding World movies with fond memories, not all of the cast feel that way. This is because Miriam Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout, fired shots at Harry Potter saying it “wasn’t important” to her.
This British-Australian actress seems like the type of woman who when asked an honest question, she’ll give you a candid answer, like the time she claimed Arnold Schwarzenegger intentionally farted in her face. So, it should come as no surprise that she barred all with British Vogue about her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise. She explained why she doesn't find that the films "mean as much" to her, saying:
It doesn’t mean as much to me as it does to them. For me Harry Potter wasn’t important. 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.
So, it appears that The Age of Innocence actor isn’t exactly trashing the fantasy-adventure series, it’s simply not a moment of her life that she keeps looking back on like the other cast does. While Margolyes’ role as Harry Potter’s herbology teacher was memorable in The Chamber of Secrets, she only had a handful of minutes of screentime. But, at least the British-Australian actress’s brief experience in the Wizarding World was still a nice one for her.
This isn't the first time Miriam Margolyes spoke candidly about her short role as Professor Sprout. Believe it or not, this Oxford-born actress admitted that she hates kids. Of course, she said she wouldn’t go so far as to wish ill harm on them, she just didn’t want to be around them. That must have been a very challenging task, then, for the Babe actress to play a professor surrounded by kids and screaming mandrakes.
She also said she wasn’t happy at the time with how much money she made from the Wizarding World, saying she made about £60,000. However, the BAFTA Award winner also understood that she didn’t get paid the same as her co-stars since she was only in two movies.
One topic that will really get the actress fired up is the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She lashed out when asked a question about it, making it plain to see that Harry Potter is not a part of her life anymore, and she wants to move on from the Warner Brothers franchise.
It’s funny that she mentioned Charles Dickens when talking about the impact Harry Potter had on her. This classic English author evidently has absolutely had more of an impact on her than any J.K. Rowling literature. In 1989, Margolyes co-wrote and starred in the one-woman show Dickens’ Women where she played 23 characters from a Dickens novel. In 2005, she also took part in the BBC Four ten-part docu-series Dickens in America where she retraced Dickens’ 1842 journey across the United States. She even did a reading at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards which, as you can predict, was held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Clearly, that author is a much bigger part of her life than the characters of the Wizarding World.
Miriam Margolyes may have felt that the Harry Potter franchise “wasn’t important” to her, but it doesn’t mean that it was an experience she regretted. You can watch her brief but unforgettable performance in this magical franchise with a Max subscription.
