Miriam Margolyes admits she’ll always be Professor Sprout

In a new interview, Miriam Margolyes acknowledges that she will always be best known for her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter series, as well as discusses her approach to acting. Although she has had a long career in film and theater preceding the franchise, she says,

I know that I will go to my grave as Professor Sprout, whatever else I’ve done.

The role has resulted in worldwide fame for the actress, and she finds herself being recognized in many other countries, as she recalls:

I remember being mobbed in Lithuania, which I didn’t expect, because of Professor Sprout.

Margolyes also talked about acting in general, explaining that she doesn’t enjoy watching herself on screen:

I don’t like watching myself because I only see the mistakes I make. And that makes me sad because I think, ‘I should have done that better, that’s not right’, so it’s just too depressing.

This certainly doesn’t mean she intends to stop acting any time soon, though, since she admits she’d like to return to the stage:

I’d love to do more Shakespeare because that’s hard.

She believes in continuing to challenge herself, particularly as she gets older:

[You] should do difficult things as you get older. You shouldn’t fall back on the easy things, so I do hope that I keep working. That’s my main aspiration because after a certain point, people think you can’t do it, so you have to prove you can.

Margolyes is currently starring in the TV comedy Trollied, airing on Sky 1 on Mondays. She plays the character of Rose, Colin’s badly behaved grandmother, in the supermarket-based show.

Will you always think of Margolyes as Professor Sprout? Or have you been tuning in to see her new role in Trollied?