Miriam Margolyes prompts fresh outrage after branding pay for Harry Potter role ‘rubbish’ days after racism row
Miriam Margolyes has provoked renewed anger after dismissing the £60,000 she earned for her role in the Harry Potter franchise as “rubbish” days after prompting fury during an ITV interview.
The 85-year-old BAFTA winner portrayed herbology teacher Professor Sprout in just two of the eight Wizarding World films: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two — with her total screen time amounting to roughly two minutes across both.
During a live panel event earlier this week, the actress expressed frustration at being primarily associated with the role.
“I’m not thrilled that everybody thinks of me as Professor Sprout. Because I have done other, better things,” she told the audience.
Miriam Margolyes has prompted outrage with her recent comments
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GETTY“Want to know how much I got? Yeah thought you would! £60K it’s f***ing rubbish!” she added.
“I don’t mind that everybody else got more, I don’t mind it’s just the way the business works. It’s like that.”
The pay complaint arrives amid an already turbulent week for the actress, who found herself at the centre of a racism controversy after an appearance on ITV’s This Morning last Thursday.
While promoting her new memoir, Miriam’s Full English, alongside presenters Christine Lampard and Andi Peters, Ms Northern Irish accent before turning her attention to Peters. “What accent would be normal for you? What are you?” she asked the visibly perplexed presenter.
After incorrectly presuming Mr Peters had one Black and one white parent, he confirmed both his parents are Black.
Andi Peters has been applauded for responding well to Miriam’s bizarre remarks
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ITV
She then described him as “high yalla,” an archaic and offensive American slang term for a light-skinned Black person.
Producers reportedly intervened through Mr Peters’ earpiece, prompting him to acknowledge on air: “They’re getting nervous now.”
ITV subsequently removed the segment from the ITVX recording of the episode.
Addressing the fallout on Sunday at a book promotion event at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend, Ms Margolyes maintained she had no intention of causing offence. “I didn’t want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice,” she told the audience.
She claimed her curiosity about Peters’ experience of race was entirely genuine. “I’d never met him before; I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he was black until I saw him,” she said.
Miriam Margolyes slammed her Harry Potter role
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PAHowever, her attempt to explain herself only deepened the controversy when she used an offensive term for disabled people.
“How do black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?” she asked.
“All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us.”
The remarks drew swift condemnation, with Piers Morgan writing on social media: “Good grief… it’s time this repulsive ‘national treasure’ had her title removed.”
Miriam Margolyes at the 2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets premiere
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GETTY
Viewers were equally scathing, with one writing that Ms Margolyes “just sounds like a run-of-the-mill racist” and calling the exchange “very uncomfortable viewing.”
Another compared her use of “high yellow” to “19th-century American racism,” adding: “Well, yes, if you happen to live on a plantation in 1845.”
Some, however, defended the actress, with one commenter writing: “Ignorance maybe but this isn’t racism.”
Mr Peters himself responded after broadcaster Jeremy Vine shared the clip and praised how the presenter handled the situation on air.
“Thanks JV. As you know we have to be ready for ANYTHING!!!” Mr Peters replied.
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