Maggie Smith'sFirst Wives ClubCostar Bronson Pinchot Remembers Actress — and Why She 'Whacked' Him on Set (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Bronson Pinchotis paying tribute to hisFirst Wives Clubcostar Maggie Smith — and remembering their hilarious first meeting.

Amid the sad news of the legendary actress’s death at age 89 on Friday, Sept. 27, Pinchot, 65, tells PEOPLE that he first met Smith on “a funeral-home set” during production of their classic 1996 comedy.

“No one introduced us; they just sat us together,” he says. “I started to tell her that herperformance as Desdemona inOthellohad moved me so much I had to be literally carried out of the movie theater.”

Smith’s response? “She picked up her clutch purse and crisply whacked me with it, saying sweetly but firmly, ‘We’ll have none of that,’ " Pinchot recalls. “I had loved her as an artist, but from that moment, I loved her as a person.”

Pinchot gave more details about the encounter in a June chat with PEOPLE, joking that when he saw 1965’sOthello —starring Smith oppositeLaurence Olivier, in a role that landed the actress her first of sixOscarnominations — “I got so emotional that my girlfriend and my sister literally carried me out like a scarecrow because I was so broken.”

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Bronson Pinchot, Sarah Jessica Parker and Maggie Smith inThe First Wives Club(1996).Andy Schwartz/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Andy Schwartz/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

After telling Smith about his reaction, Pinchot said of the purse moment, “She smacked me with it [in the chest] like we’re colleagues and you don’t need to be telling me that I’m something great.”

“And it was the most affectionate, eloquent [moment], because what she was saying was, ‘Look, we’re equals here. … Oh, God, I just adored her,” he added.

The actor also recalled how he was “able to pay her back” when Smith got an abscess in her tooth on set and he found her crying in her makeup trailer, claiming she wasn’t permitted to “go take care of it” at the moment. So Pinchot tracked down producerScott Rudinto sort it out.

“I said, ‘Maggie Smith is crying because she’s got an abscess on her tooth, and they told her she couldn’t go to the dentist.’ And he said, ‘Who told her?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but Maggie Smith is crying,’ " Pinchot told PEOPLE. “And he got a limo and put her in it and took her to a dentist.”

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Maggie Smith in London on Oct. 13, 2015.John Phillips/Getty

John Phillips/Getty

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days,” Stephens and Larkin added.

The brothers concluded, “We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”

source: people.com