Daniel Radcliffe mourns Harry Potter costar Maggie Smith: ‘She could intimidate and charm in the same instant’

Daniel Radcliffe is mourning Dame Maggie Smith.

The Harry Potter star, who acted alongside the two-time Oscar winner in seven installments of the wizarding series as well as BBC’s David Copperfield, shared a statement with Entertainment Weekly remembering his first encounter with the legendary thespian, who died Friday morning at age 89.

“The first time I met Maggie Smith I was 9 years old and we were reading through scenes for David Copperfield, which was my first job,” Radcliffe recalled of the 1999 miniseries. “I knew virtually nothing about her other than that my parents were awestruck at the fact that I would be working with her.”

Radcliffe said that he was only aware of her status as a Dame, which she received from Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. “The other thing I knew about her was that she was a Dame, so the first thing I asked her when we met was ‘would you like me to call you Dame?”’at which she laughed and said something to the effect of ‘don’t be ridiculous!'” Radcliffe said. “I remember feeling nervous to meet her and then her putting me immediately at ease.”

The actor noted that Smith’s kindness extended throughout every one of their future collaborations, in which she played transfiguration professor the head of Gryffindor, Minerva McGonagall. “She was incredibly kind to me on that shoot, and then I was lucky enough to go on working with her for another 10 years on the Harry Potter films,” Radcliffe said. “She was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny. I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set.”

Radcliffe concluded his statement with his highest praise. “The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her,” he said. “Thank you Maggie.”

Smith died early in the morning on Friday, Sept. 27, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin announced. “An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end,” her sons said in a statement. “She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren, who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”

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