While promoting the release of her new movie
Finding Your Feet, actress Imelda Staunton commented on one of her most famous on-screen characters, Dolores Umbridge, and the comparisons between her and a few real-life American politicians. Without naming names, she had this to say about the eerie and problematic similarities.
Quote:
Imelda Staunton: “This is a woman, I mean the evil in her was that she was after ethnic cleansing, quite frankly, with pure bloods and a dictator. Yes, we have all those today, but I think abusing your position of power, which she definitely did…[Americans] have someone doing that on a daily basis. That’s what’s shocking.”
“Those people shouldn’t be in power, and she certainly shouldn’t have been in power. You’ll find those comparisons in every century, in every decade there’ll be someone like that. It was a wonderful piece of writing that J.K. [Rowling] put in those books. These teachers, on the whole, they were great to the kids, but this was one who absolutely should not have been there.”
Staunton also noted that she would happily jump at the chance to reprise Umbridge again for the big screen, in
Fantastic Beasts, perhaps, or otherwise, if asked. She stars in
Finding Your Feet alongside former
Harry Potter series actors Timothy Spall and Sian Thomas, which is out now.