Maggie Smith would hate for her legacy to be ‘Harry Potter’: the curse (and blessing) of succeeding in a franchise | Culture

“It’s a shame to think that a generation of great British actors will be mainly remembered for small roles in the Harry Potter films.” This is how blunt the former critic of The New York Times and now film curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Dave Kehr, in a message in X last week after the death of the British actress Maggie Smith, remembered in the headlines of many obituaries as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the adventures of the boy wizard, above the many brilliant leading roles she played in her long career in cinema and theater, for which he won two Oscars and five Baftas. The list to which Kehr was referring includes Alan Rickman (who played Snape), Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), actors who died in recent years whose obituaries were also marked by their participation in the fantastic saga.

After Smith’s death last Friday at age 89, a group of fans came to the Harry Potter amusement park in Los Angeles to pay tribute to their teacher. Surely the actress would have hated that pantomime. The protagonist of Gosford Park He also ruthlessly despised the global fame that his role in the series brought him. Downton Abbey. In 2017, he protested at the British Film Institute for not being able to go to the supermarket or to an exhibition without causing trouble since he started working on that production. “He led a normal life. Now I can’t do anything and it’s terrible (…) It’s what television creates. “I was working a lot before all this and life was going well.” This lack of anonymity bothered him so much that he did not participate in the meeting for the 20 years of harry potter nor did he collect the awards he received for that role in the US. Robbie Coltrane, on the other hand, coped with the effusive affection of the fans with pleasure: “Harry Potter will be seen in 50 years. I won’t be there, but Hagrid will,” he said emotionally months before he died.

It is not an isolated or recent phenomenon. Angela Lansbury’s role in the series was highlighted when she died A crime has been writtenleaving his Broadway career in the background. Alec Guinnes never hid his discomfort at the relevance that his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. The British man was not amused that the Jedi master overshadowed characters like the one he played in The bridge over the River Kwai. “It boils inside me when they mention it. When it premiered, I appreciated its freshness, its sense of morality and fun. “Afterwards I started to feel uncomfortable,” the actor said in his memoirs, A Positively Final Appearanceremembering how a 12-year-old boy who had seen the film a hundred times approached him. The actor asked him to never see her again: “I saw a trace of madness forming in his eyes (…) He started to cry. His mother scolded me. (…) I hope that that child, now in his 30s, does not continue living in a world of second-hand fantasy and childish banalities.”

With the proliferation of sequels and franchises, what happened to Alec Ginnes has become common among older actors. Today, legends of his stature are often hired by studios to add a veneer of respectability to those productions. Of Donald Sutherland’s brilliant career, what stood out when he died in 2022 was his participation in the hunger games. James Earl Jones, who died a month ago, has emerged as the voice of Mufasa and Darth Vader. In Spain there are also cases, such as that of Amparo Baró with the series 7 lives or Emma Penella with There is no one who lives here.

It is something that Leonard Nimoy also struggled with, who died in 2015 at the age of 83, who already wrote the biography in 1975 I’m not Spock, where the actor and also director of Three men and a baby, painter and photographer tried to build his identity beyond his character in Star Trek. “I was so pigeonholed that it was difficult to stand out in any other job,” already recognized in 2008. In his final decades, however, he returned to the saga of star trek, He directed two films in the saga, lavished the ship’s message of peace and curiosity Enterprise and he did not miss a convention: “It prevented me from achieving a role, but it built an identity for me, and that is very important. I was never out of work after Star Trek. I never needed to look for it again.” In 1995 he wrote another book: I’m Spock. In his last days, he signed his messages on Twitter with “Live long and prosper,” replicating his character.

It can be frustrating for actors with long careers to be remembered for a sometimes secondary role, but the truth is that sometimes a character becomes an icon for a generation, establishing a strong emotional connection with them. To the point that they end up becoming, in the minds of their followers, parasocial friends whom they believe they know and dedicate their devotion and tears to. harry potterin particular, is a saga that millennials and now generation Z have vibrated with. Minerva McGonagall is imprinted on their memories as much or more than the real teachers they had at school.

The generational struggle also enters the debate, where a recent character can end up overshadowing previous ones whose memory has not survived time, regardless of their quality. If for some Patrick Stewart will always be the Picard of Star Trekfor some younger people it will be impossible to separate him from Professor Xavier of the saga X-men, while a few others will claim in their obituaries their extensive work in theater and television. As they will do with Ian McKellen, although the headlines go to his Gandalf of the lord of the rings or your Magneto in X-men.

On the other hand, a franchise can overshadow, but it does not eliminate the rest either. Harry Potter fans may be curious to see Maggie Smith in other movies like California suite. Or Donald Sutherland in Novecento and ordinary people. To Gemma Cuervo, the fame of There is no one who lives here He has made her known among young people, who show great affection for her. Some may discover his role in The world goes onby Fernando Fernán Gómez. With that, justice would be done to them.

In his final days, Leonard Nimoy made clear his commitment to Spock’s legacy. The character would transcend his person: “I am very grateful. “It’s better than being forgotten,” he acknowledged. He knew that he was not going to go down in history for his many works, but he understood that all the obituaries would remember him for Star Trek. It would be a timeless and abstract icon.