The Crawleys will say goodbye to at least one family member if "Downton Abbey" continues for a seventh season.
Maggie Smith, who plays Dowager Countess of Grantham, plans to leave the British drama at the end of season six. Whether the show continues past next season remains unknown.
"They say this is the last one, and I can't see how it could go on," Smith told The Sunday Times (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I mean, I certainly can't keep going... To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We're into the late 1920s."
The fifth season wrapped up its U.S. run last night on PBS. Production will start soon on season six and the show will premiere first in the U.K. this fall before it debuts in the U.S. at the start of 2016.
Smith has received multiple awards for her portrayal as the witty and sharp-tongued matriarch of Downton including two Emmys and a Golden Globe. Her popularity on the show has cost the 80-year-old actress much of her anonymity off screen.
"One isn't safe after doing 'Downton.' What's sad is I've gone through my whole life without any of that. I could go round galleries and things on my own and I just can't do it now. If someone decides to get at you, you can't get away," she said.
The "Harry Potter" star also shuns the idea of selfies, the preferred choice of fans today compared to the traditional autograph.
"What's awful is it used to be just autographs, but now everyone wants photographs. You begin to feel like all those people who believed photographs took the soul away," Smith said. "There's nothing like privacy, but nobody will have that soon. Nobody's private any more."
Smith stars in "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," out in theaters on March 6.
