He’s “never fully got over” the incident.
Downton Abbey star Michael Fox has recalled a set accident that took place while filming scenes with the late Dame Maggie Smith.
Fox is best known for playing Andy Parker in the ITV series, footman to Dowager Countess Violet Crawley (Smith). He joined in season five and also appeared in the sixth and final series, in addition to the Downton Abbey movies, including the forthcoming third film.
Appearing on The One Show today, Fox shared a funny anecdote when filming with Smith, who passed away in September last year.
“Working with Maggie was an extraordinary thing, I was a young actor coming in and I was a bit of a bag of nerves,” he said. “And, yeah, there was one moment on set where I basically nearly pulled her over completely.
“Because I put a cloak on her, and they said, ‘Okay can we go again’ and I said yes and pulled the cloak and she nearly fully went over.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Fox revealed he then accidentally trapped her fingers in a prop.
“She said, ‘Okay, can we sort out this business with the purse?’, so I said, ‘Yes, absolutely Maggie’ and then I closed her fingers into the purse.”
The actor admits he “never fully got over” the incident but was pleased she took it in her stride.
Commenting on her death last year, Fox added: “It was really amazing to read all the tributes that came out about her and I feel very, very proud to have worked with her.”
Fans bid goodbye to Smith’s character in the second and most recent film Downton Abbey: A New Era, with the Dowager passing away at the end of the film.
According to the film’s executive producer Gareth Neame, the third film was always set to pay tribute to her but now feels even more poignant following the actor’s death.
“The loss of the Dowager, it now feels far more significant that you see actors playing characters mourning the family matriarch,” he told TVLine. “But I also see actors mourning the matriarch of the show, and it feels more genuine and more meaningful.”
Downton Abbey 3 will arrive on screens in September this year, seeing Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery return to reprise their roles alongside Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton and Lesley Nicol.
