‘I’m having a rebirth’: Miriam Margolyes on the Oscar-nominated A Friend of Dorothy (EXCLUSIVE)

“I want to make it clear – I did not seduce this young woman!” Miriam Margolyes thunderously declares.

It’s a quote so brilliantly funny it requires a few paragraphs for context. Because no amount of rewatching The Graham Norton Show (remember when she asked Alexander Skarsgård, “you’re not gay, are you?”) can prepare you for just how outrageously entertaining – or emotional – an interview with Miriam can be.

The 84-year-old, best known as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, is speaking to Attitude with Lee Knight, director of her Oscar-nominated short film A Friend of Dorothy, who’s just shared a moving story about how the veteran actor inspired a crew member to come out.

“One of our assistants who was seeing to Miriam – you got on so well with her! – sent me a text saying she was at a very low point in her life during the making the film,” he recalls. “She said [after] being on set and around Miriam and these people, she came out to her family and friends. Her mum said to me she’s like a different person.”

Just as Attitude is about to cry, Margolyes announces the above (we’ll repeat for emphasis: “I did not seduce this young woman!”) and we’re instead crying with laughter. Then, as she reflects on the 22-minute short, and its effect on her life, we’re crying with joy.

“This little film has changed my life, towards the end of my life…” Miriam tells us, her magnificent voice that one-of-a-kind mix of confidence, eccentricity and warmth. “It has become irradiated by this film, this man [Knight] and this relationship, which is gorgeous. So, I’m having a kind of rebirth!”

“I’m not the Oscar nominee, he is – I’m just a naughty little gatecrasher” – Miriam Margolyes

The Stephen Fry-costarring A Friend of Dorothy sits lovingly and patiently with a solitary, elderly Londoner named Dorothy, who, while contemplating the end of her life, befriends local teenager JJ, after he kicks a football into her back garden.

“Could you open a tin of prunes better than you can kick a ball?” Miriam’s Wizard of Oz-coded character hilariously quizzes, clocking that JJ, like Dorothy’s friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion, is… a little different.

In her way, of course, Miriam is a fairy godmother figure to all of us in the LGBTQ community. The noted trans ally, also known for The Age of Innocence, James and the Giant Peach and Romeo + Juliet, is an example of a queer life fabulously lived: she came come out as a lesbian in 1966, three years before the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, and has been with her partner Heather Sutherland for 54 years.

Speaking of football, actor Alistair Nwachukwu kicks it out of the park as JJ, particularly during a reading of Matthew Lopez’s queer classic The Inheritance. “Finally, after a lifetime of shame, to hold you in my arms, delighting in his body, in your smell, in my skin, in your warm breath, on my shoulder – I love you, Henry,” he says, Dorothy’s eyes brimming with tears.

“It was a magical experience,” adds Miriam of the four-day shoot. “I can’t overestimate to you how special it was.””

To read the rest of this feature, check out Attitude Uncut on Apple News+.

Attitude – the world’s biggest LGBTQ+ media brand and Europe’s best-selling magazine for gay men – is launching of Attitude Uncut, an all-new digital magazine that will be published six times a year (between Attitude print issues) and available exclusively on Apple News+ and via the Attitude app. Featuring long-read journalism inspired by themes resonating within the LGBTQ+ community, each issue will provide a deep dive into topics as varied as sexuality, identity, health, relationships and beyond.