It's very apparent that Maggie Smith likes to keep her personal space!
During an appearance on Andy Cohen's 'Watch What Happens Live', Downton Abbey actors Elizabeth McGovern and Allen Leech revealed a funny fact about their iconic co-star Maggie Smith.
“What’s a sure-fire way to know that Dame Maggie Smith is in a bad mood?” a fan asked.
“That’s a great question,” replied McGovern.
“The cane,” added Leech, as McGovern nodded in agreement.
The pair went on to tell a story about how one time, Smith used the prop as a way of letting someone on set know they’d gotten too close for comfort.
“She always has the cane and obviously it’s for the character" but when "one first [assistant director]" would get “a little too close” to her and “very, very touchy,” Maggie would instantly pull out her cane as a barrier.
“Literally she would always have the cane there and as she would see him coming it was like, ‘Here he f— comes. That’s far enough, that’s far enough’.”
