Maggie Smith ponders retirement from stage

Published on Monday 5 October 2009 22:03

DAME Maggie Smith is considering retiring from theatre work as her battle with breast cancer has left her with stage fright.

The 74-year-old, who has won two Oscars and five Baftas, was being treated for the disease when she played Professor McGonagall in the recent film Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.

But in a newspaper interview she said fighting the disease had left her "flattened".

Dame Maggie, whose most famous performance remains her role in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, said: "I'm not sure I could go back to theatre work, although film work is more tiring. I'm frightened to work in theatre now. I feel very uncertain."

Her last stage role was in The Lady From Dubuque in 2007.

Dame Maggie was diagnosed with cancer last year after finding a lump in her breast, but has been given the all-clear.

The actress said: "I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too.

"It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything."

She described her cancer as "hideous", but said that the chemotherapy "makes you feel much worse than the cancer".

She will next be seen at The Times London Film Festival in Julian Fellowes's ghost story From Time To Time.

However, she said that if she does return to the stage it would have to be in an original role, and she revealed she has already "shouted" at Alan Bennett to write one for her.