What would Maggie say?
Shirley Maclaine’s verdict on her Downton Abbey rival: I adore her... I think we were lovers in another life
THEY play rival iron-willed matriarchs who will clash spectacularly when Downton Abbey returns next month.
But Shirley MacLaine has revealed that she and Maggie Smith have hit it off brilliantly off-screen.
Or, as the 78-year-old American actress put it in her own inimitable style: ‘I think we were lovers in another life. Possibly that’s a joke, but all kinds of humour are real.’
Quite what 77-year-old Maggie will make of the comment is unknown, but it would undoubtedly provoke an acerbic put-down from her character Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
Shirley MacLaine’s belief in reincarnation is well documented. She once claimed to have been a model for Toulouse Lautrec.
She also said she had seduced eighthcentury emperor Charlemagne in a previous life, before he was reborn as Swedish prime minister Olaf Palme and became her lover again.
The actress has been cast as Cincinnati millionairess Martha Levinson, mother of Cora, Countess of Grantham, in the ITV costume drama’s third series, which begins next month.
Trailers have already shown her tense first meeting with the Dowager Countess.
But Shirley told Radio Times that she is a fan of her fellow Oscar-winner, saying: ‘I adore Maggie. I’ve known her for years.’
The American – whose films include The Apartment and Steel Magnolias – said she was cast to give Maggie someone to spar off. ‘I’m a volleyball partner for Maggie,’ she said, adding jokingly: ‘Who else would they get?
‘Let me think: Anthony Hopkins in drag.’
The American said she loved making the series, adding: ‘Filming out in the rain and wind wasn’t easy, but no one seemed to notice.’