CORRECTION-FILM-LADY IN THE VAN PREMIERE Stars hail 'phenomenal' Maggie Smith at London premiere of 'The Lady in the Van'

Record ID: 135384

  • Title: CORRECTION-FILM-LADY IN THE VAN PREMIERE Stars hail 'phenomenal' Maggie Smith at London premiere of 'The Lady in the Van'
  • Date: 14th October 2015
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 13, 2015) (REUTERS) WINDOW OF VAN / EXTERIOR OF CINEMA WITH 'THE LADY IN THE VAN' PROMOTIONAL POSTER YELLOW VAN ON RED CARPET VAN WING MIRROR YELLOW VAN ON RED CARPET
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA52RII0G0GMN8GGQJX3WVU8RIA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE - RESENDING WITH CORRECTED DATE OF PREMIERE TO OCTOBER 13, 2015
    The cast and crew of 'The Lady in the Van' hailed Maggie Smith's 'phenomenal' performance as a homeless woman living in a battered yellow vehicle in the driveway of British playwright Alan Bennett, at the BFI London Film Festival premiere of the movie on Tuesday (October 13).
    Smith, 80, is well known for starring in British period drama 'Downton Abbey' as the Dowager Countess of Grantham, but the award-winning actress swapped the corsets for worn, old clothes as she took on the role of Miss Shepherd in the film adaptation of Bennett's diaries.
    'The Lady in the Van' tells the story of the homeless Miss Mary Shepherd, who lives in a van parked in Bennett's Camden driveway from 1974 and 1989.
    Bennett's memoirs were also adapted in to a play of the same name, in which Smith also played the titular role in 1999 - a part which Bennett said was a challenge.
    "It's a very taxing part, really. It requires far more - we're both the same age. I couldn't have done anything like it, she (Maggie Smith) has got far more energy than I've got and she used to say about the, when she played it on the stage, it was the most bruising part she'd ever played, literally bruising because she was always being knocked about in the van, and so on. And I think it's not been very different on the film really, she's quite a - it's a very hard part," Bennett said, before adding that he could now only visualise Smith when thinking of the real Miss Shepherd.
    "The trouble is now I can't, I mean it's because it's so long ago now, Miss Shepherd died in 1989, I can only see Maggie's face, I can't see Miss Shepherd any more," he said.
    British actor Alex Jennings (The Queen, Babel), who plays Bennett, said that Maggie's acting was 'phenomenal'.
    "She (Maggie Smith) is awesome, I'd worked with her on stage before, and she's a friend, and she makes you want to be better than you are really because when you're up close and acting with her she's the greatest actor I've ever worked with, unquestionably. It's phenomenal, her armory."
    Jennings said that playing Bennett, a real-life person who was involved in the film, was 'weird'.
    "You know, the nation loves Alan Bennett. It's a responsibility, it's a bit weird, and he's around all the time, when we were shooting and when I played him at the national theatre he was there a lot, so it's a bit weird and it's weird for him as well but you know, he keeps putting himself in his work so, get over it Alan," he joked.
    Director Nicholas Hytner also praised Smith for her 'extraordinary' performance.
    "I've known her (Maggie Smith) a very long time, and I know nobody who is able to do more, who is able to do more with a brief moment's silence, with a line, when she's given material like Alan Bennett gives her, you see the art of acting at its very height, she's rightly a legend, but she's a legend because she can do so much with so little. She is the most extraordinary actor."
    It is Bennett's and Hytner's second collaboration since the 2006 film, 'The History Boys' - also originally a play by Bennett.
    English actor Dominic Cooper, who also stars in the film, walked the red carpet, with comedian David Walliams and his mother, who were attending the premiere as guests, close behind.
    'The Lady in the Van' opens in UK cinemas on November 13.
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