UK actor Toby Stephens has loved his personal triumphs on display – finest recognized for his position as James Bond’s youngest ever villain Gustav Graves reverse Pierce Brosnan in Die One other Day (2002).
And the profession of his mom, Dame Maggie Smith who died in 2023, is well known as one of many 20th century’s nice legacies – on theatre, stage and display, though two roles got here to outline her to youthful generations, these of Professor McGonagall within the Harry Potter collection, and the acerbic Dowager Duchess within the long-running TV collection Downton Abbey.
Now Stephens has shared why, regardless of their particular person successes, mom and son made the choice very early on to not unite on display. He defined to The Instances of London:
“We each thought it could be a bit naff. I’d have cherished to — however it could have been such a factor.”
Stephens admitted he had fought in opposition to barbs of nepotism early in his profession, because the son of Smith and director Robert Stephens. He mentioned:
““Undoubtedly, inside the career, there was a component of ‘nicely, that is taking place due to who your mother and father are… It was crippling for some time. It was: how do I stroll the road between not simply speaking about it endlessly, or not seeming like I’m being obtuse by not speaking about it in any respect? I believe it brought about my mum some embarrassment, regardless that she knew I needed to do my very own factor.”
He added:
“However you then get to a degree the place you go, I imply, I’m simply so pleased with her. I’d accomplished sufficient to know that’s not why I’m working.”
Extra just lately, Stephens has appeared in Amazon’s teenage spy collection Alex Rider, the place he performed billionaire villain Damian Cray.