Her brilliant career on stage and screen has lasted over 40 years but Judi Dench is showing no sign of slowing up, says Anna Young
What does an eminent actress like Dame Judi Dench look for when she watches a play? Like most actors. she assesses the voices, the characterisation and the movement but, in her case, she is also likely to scrutinise the set and the costumes. For design was her introduction to the theatre and, today, she still loves designing clothes for her friends and family.
When I go to meet her late one afternoon at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, she is sitting backstage among the props for The Breath of Life, in which she appeared alongside Dame Maggie Smith, which closed earlier this year after an extended run.
Dressed casually in white jumper and camel trousers, Dame Judi exudes a sense of calm as she looks back over her life and an acting career spanning 44 years.
She was born in York on 9 December 1934 where, she says. a very happy childhood was spent with her two brothers.
“We were always doing things and larking about because there was no television then, I suppose.”
Her father was a doctor and GP to York's Theatre Royal company so, as children, Judi and her brothers were often taken to the theatre by their parents, and touring performers were regular guests in their home. But, surprisingly, that is not where, or when, she caught the acting bug. Initially she wanted to be a dancer, or an artist -- more than an actor and she first trained to be a designer at art school.
“Then I went to Stratford where I saw this wonderful, wonderful set and I thought to myself, ‘I wish I had designed it' -- but I would never have had the imagination!”
It was then that she decided to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After training, her first role was as Ophelia with the Liverpool Old Vic's 1957 production of Hamlet, under John Neville.
“There I learnt all about how to behave in a theatre and how to behave in that company.”
In 1961, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company after which a prolific stage career followed. Her film debut came, three years later, in The Third Secret.
In 1971, she married fellow actor Michael Williams, whom she met at the RSC.
During her brilliant career, Dame Judi received numerous honours for her work. In 1970, she was given an OBE and, in 1988, made a Dame of the British Empire, She has also been awarded honorary degrees from 10 universities. Among her major successes on the stage in recent years are her unforgettable performances in the Sondheitn musical, A Little Night Music and as Esme Allen in Amy's View,, a role which she recreated on Broadway. On the big screen, in 1997, her acclaimed, Oscar-nominated role as Queen Victoriain Mrs. Brown also resulted in a happy and ongoing friendship with her co-star, Billy Connolly.
In 1998, Dame Judi won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role as Elizabeth I in the box-office hit Shakespeare in Love. For her performance as Armande in Chocolat in 2000 she received an Academy Award nomination in 2001, she won a BAFTA (one of five) for Best Actress for her moving performance as the novelist Iris Murdoeh in the film Iris, with Kate Winslet.
On television, she has made numerous appearances. notably with Geoffrey Palmer in the popular series As Time Goes By and also in A Fine Rømance, in which she starred opposite her husband.
Since Michael's death from lung cancer in January 2001, Dame Judi admits she has filled her life with work. The couple had been happily married for almost 30 years and enjoyed being part of village life in Surrey. Acting was set aside for some time while she nursed him in his final months. Michael, himself, had been completely supportive of his wife's rise to worldwide stardom in recent years, in major films such as The Shipping News, as well as Chocolat and Iris.
When she is away from acting, Dame Judi likes to take her pleasures quietly:
“I love swimming and I love making clothes,” she tells me. “My ideal challenge is for one of the family to come to me and say, ‘I've got to go out tomorrow and I have nothing to wear'. I'll make it and I'll make it that night.”
Her family crops un often in conversation. She enjoys being with her daughter, Finty, who is also an actress, and her fiveand-a-half-year-old red-haired grandson, Sam.
“He calls me Ma,” she says with amusement. “I'm like a kind of old chief in his life.”
Being a grandmother is, she says, great fun, but then Dame Judi seems to find humour in most things:
“Almost anything makes me laugh. Unless people have a sense of humour I don't want to work with them.”
Having acted for over four decades, in productions ranging from Shakespearean plays to modern television comedy, which of them, I ask her, stands out in her own memory — could it be the first night of Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre?
“It is very rare when you get to a first night that you are able to achieve all that you have rehearsed and thought about. On that evening we did. But, of course, it got much better.” That role ran to some 100 performances, and the list of successes continues to grow.
Nevertheless, we should not assume that first-night nerves is an affliction that is not known to Dame Judi.
“I have never overcome nerves, never she admits. “In fact, I get much more nervous nowat the beginning of a play than I ever did. I think it is part of my kind of make-up.”
Learning her lines does not become any easier, either, despite years of experienee. Nor has she become complacent about either her talent or her ability to perform well:
“Somehow, the more work you do, the more is expected of you,” she feels. “You kind of never quite live up to your expectations.”
Undoubtedly, she has the ability to captivate an audience in the theatre.
“But,” as she says, “every single audience is different, and they are different all around the world. In Japan, they are very, very quiet: in America, everyone stands up at the end, which is very nice; in Africa, they all shout out. It's very exciting, but different eveny time.”
She has just finished filming The Chronicles of Riddick, which was shot in Vancouver and is due to be released next spring.
In it, she worked with Van [sic] Diesel, who has appeared on the big-screen in several action films. It seems like an unlikely pairing for two actors who have played hugely contrasting roles in the past.
However, Dame Judi had already taken a step aside from classic film roles by accepting the role of ‘M', the head of British intelligence in James Bond films, including last year's Die Another Day.
In The Chronicles of Riddick, she plays the role of an ethereal being who helps Riddick (played by Van [sic]Diesel), an inter-galactic prisoner, who has the ability to see in the dark.
I ask her if this new role built into her career plan. She answers, with a lighthearted laugh:
“I have no idea. I just want the next job.”
We are certain, however, that whatever she decides to do will be done with her usual unstinting professionalism.
Thanks to Kevin McHugh for sending this article which appeared in the June 3, 2003 edition of The Lady (UK). Note that the picture of Judi and the cat was split and on facing pages in the article. I hope I posted them close enough for you to get a sense of the entire picture.