Dame Maggie Smith Interviewed on Acting & the Public, “I Led a Perfectly Normal Life Until Downton Abbey.” Watch

Dame Maggie Smith, who has played many amazing roles in her long career including the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey, talks to interviewer Mark Lawson about why she never watches herself on screen, among other things. It’s a lively interview where talks about the joy (or lack of it) in acting and says things like,

“I led a perfectly normal life until Down Abbey.“

Dame Maggie Smith in Conversation, was part of the BFI + Radio Times TV festival, and took place this past April.

She also spoke to Graham Norton on his show about the same subject. And below that is a clip of some of Smith’s best moments as Lady Grantham. You can see why she can’t go out in public anymore.

Watch.