Miriam Margolyes Reveals Why She Turned Down the Role in ‘Agatha’: “I don’t like America”

Miriam Margolyes is one of the most versatile actresses you can come across. She initially gained fame as a voice artist until she eventually expanded into film and television in ‘Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers’ (1977), and various characters in ‘Blackadder’ alongside Rowan Atkinson. She won acclaim for her portrayal of Flora Finching in ‘Little Dorrit’ (1988), and Mrs. Mingott in ‘The Age of Innocence’ (1993), earning her a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Younger audiences will most certainly recognize Margolyes by her portrayal of Professor Sprout in ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.’ She is still active in the community and her roles and creative ventures are truly too numerous to be summarized, but don’t worry she reminisced about her wild career in her upcoming book Oh Miriam! which was released back in September 2023.

In her book, Miriam claims she was contacted by Marvel Studios as they were interested in offering her a role in ‘Agatha,’ a WandaVision spinoff focusing on Agatha Harkness in the fallout of Wanda’s own show.

They contacted me and said, ‘we’re doing a story about witches’. I thought, ‘oh god, not witches again, because I’ve done that with Harry Potter’.”

Margolyes knew that the show wouldn’t sit with her primarily because it was filmed in the USA.

I don’t like America and I didn’t want to be in Georgia for four months. So I just said, ‘well, I want a million pounds (A$1.9 million)’ and they said, ‘you can have half a million’, and I said, ‘no, I don’t want to do it’, so it just stopped. Really it’s a story about my own greed rather than anything else.

Despite Margolyes declining the role, the show did just fine. Recently it was re-titled once again and we’re expecting ‘Agatha’ to be released sometime in late 2024 just in time for Halloween. Got something to add? Let us know in the comments below!