Top Five Acting Successes of Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall
Today is Dame Maggie Smith’s birthday! We here at MuggleNet would like to wish her a very happy birthday. To celebrate, we wanted to go Harry Potter style and showcase her best moments portraying Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.
- “Why don’t you confer with Mr. Finnigan? As I recall, he has a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics.”
Smith enunciates her words hard, and the use of alliteration helps highlight her characterization of Professor McGonagall. In this moment, we see McGonagall praising what used to be Seamus’s downfall now as an asset to protecting Hogwarts from Voldemort and his army in his seventh year.
2. “The House of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizarding world for nearly ten centuries. I will not have you, in one night, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons!”
McGonagall had a particular proclivity for alliteration even back in Harry’s fourth year, and Smith delivers this line confidently and with vigor, complete with her upturned nose and facial expression. The last thing McGonagall wants is for her House to make fools of themselves at the Yule Ball.
3. “Why is it when something happens it is always you three?”
This is almost more of a statement than it is a question: By now, McGonagall is used to the golden trio being involved in the events around school and probably wonders why it must always be them instead of anyone else. In their sixth year, I’m sure McGonagall is reminded of the three of them running around her office in years past, and Smith’s portrayal of this reminiscence is not only funny but also hilariously truthful.
4. “Potter, take Weasley with you. He looks far too happy over there.”
Still in their sixth year, this line is, of course, meant for comic relief, but Smith makes it more than just that. The key to making a line sound organic is making sure the character you embody says it in their own way, and so Smith as McGonagall does that: She makes McGonagall quirky in addition to strict, and that makes her all the more lovable.
5. “And his name is Voldemort, Filius. You might as well use it. He is going to try and kill you either way.”
McGonagall’s courage really shines through here! She is ready for a fight, and Smith’s delivery on this line really makes us believe that is so. Of all her wonderful comic relief moments in Deathly Hallows – Part 2, McGonagall’s strongest moment is this one, where she is ready to defend the school she loves.
There are so many more successful moments! Maggie Smith is a fantastic actor who truly embodied the spirit of Minerva McGonagall. What are some of your favorite moments with Dame Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall?
My favorite is “I’ve always wanted to use that spell”.
As with many of the performances in the films, it’s often the smaller moments that stand out for me, e,g.,
The first Transfiguration lesson in PS (“Thank you for that assessment, Mr Weasley”).
The sheer glee in “Wood, I have found you a Seeker!”, also in PS.
The silent gesture of support she gives Harry when his name comes out of the Goblet in GoF (in stark contrast to Gambon’s Angry!Dumbledore).
Her confrontation with Umbridge on the main staircase in OotP (the Careers Advice scene from the book would have been better, but it’s still a nice scene).
And on which note, it has to be acknowledged that many of McGonagall’s best moments don’t actually make it into the films. I’d have paid good money just to see a two minute short of Maggie Smith wandering the corridors of Hogwarts, serenely ignoring the Weasley-inspired anti-Umbridge chaos going on in the background, coming across Peeves and the chandelier, muttering “It unscrews the other way” as she marches past, and disappearing round the corner.
Though it’s so hard to choose I have two favorite Minerva moments. The first time we see her after she transfigures back from her cat form and talks to Dumbledore about the Dursleys being “the worst kind of muggles” and her concern for baby Harry is so touching and relatable for me. Then nearly the end of the whole story when she casts “pierlocatotum locomotor” and brings the statues of Hogwarts to life in defense of the castle and the girlish excitement in her voice “I’ve always wanted to use that spell!”. The amount of restraint this fabulous witch must have to not do all the amazing spells she COULD do because they are not necessary and she must be a good example.