National treasures are not quite as common as we might think, nor are they anointed simply because they live to a ripe old age. Judi Dench has become one not simply because, at 91, she has been one of our most celebrated actors for over half a century, but because she remains such a beguiling presence, with such an enquiring approach to life. We could all do with being a little bit more Judi.
“National treasure makes me sound like a dusty old relic that’s been stuffed away in the back of a cupboard,” she complains in her new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, essentially a rambling 350-page conversation with her good friend, fellow actor Brendan O’Hea.
If the book is a delight to read, it’s because she is a delight. While Dench is never quite so presumptuous as to offer up prescriptive self-help-style wisdom, the reader nevertheless comes away with a better grasp on how to approach life, and prepare for its hurdles. For aspiring actors, meanwhile, the information contained within is priceless.
The show must go on
While she was performing in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music in London in 1996, an IRA bomb went off near Canary Wharf. “I remember that evening well, a big sonic boom that made the theatre rattle, and put everybody on tenterhooks. But you just get on with it, don’t you?”
This particular theatrical run was dogged by persistent bad luck. Dench also suffering an infection from a mouse bite, an allergic reaction to her moisturiser and a swollen hand after being butted by a ram in Scotland. As a result, she once cried throughout an entire performance. A fellow actor took her aside afterwards to remonstrate. “You leave everything at the stage door, and deal with the show.”
Ever since, she has.
Always be nice
During the filming of Cats, the calamitous 2019 cinematic adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical, Dench was dispirited to discover that the film crew may have paid necessary props to its A-list cast (James Corden, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson), but not so much its many extras.
“Don’t ask me why I accepted the job, but I was ill at ease from the beginning,” Dench confesses. “The younger dancers were left hanging at the end of each take, exhausted. But they were the ones that got me through the film, and I marvelled at them. All that energy and commitment they put in, their patience and their sense of humour.”
An unforgivable lapse, by her reckoning. “I loathe bad manners. A quick ‘thank you’ doesn’t cost anything. How can you get the best out of people unless they feel valued?”
Be your true self
Early on in her career, a 23-year-old Dench was invited to meet a big Hollywood producer. “He stared at me for a very long time, then said, very nice to meet you, but you will never make a movie because you have every single thing wrong with your face,” she recounts. “I suppose that was the era when you had to be quite a looker. I said, ‘Thank you very much for your time’, and left.” Did she immediately quit the profession and fall into depression? No. She simply chose to believe in herself. It paid off.
Confound expectations, even your own
An accomplished actor she may be, but Dench has never been particularly noted for her singing voice. This hasn’t stopped her singing, however, either on stage or in film. This has required her to dig deep.
“I got fed up after one show [where] people kept saying they’d love to see it again once I’d got over my laryngitis,” she recounts. Infuriated, she persuaded management to put a note in the programme that read: “Judi Dench confirms that she is not suffering from a bad cold. The husky note in her voice has been there since birth.”
A workplace romance isn’t always doomed
In 1971, she married fellow actor Michael Williams. They went on to appear together many times on stage, and in the beloved 80s sitcom A Fine Romance.
“People didn’t think it would last,” she says. Neither, at first, did she. “I’m Sagittarius, he’s Cancer.” Nevertheless, common ground was found. “We had similar tastes in food, [a fondness for] cards, quizzes and Scrabble; the same sense of humour. We never took each other for granted.” They were together until his death in 2001. “I am who I am because of Mikey.”
Take beauty tips from your idols
Dench once met the legendary Italian actor Sophia Loren on a film shoot. “I was completely starstruck. She exudes such a presence, and glows when she walks into a room.” Loren was full of sage advice. Dench took note. “To this day, I still moisturise my hands with olive oil and salt. She also recommended putting mint leaves under your eyes, although at my age I should probably try putting them over my entire face.”
Size doesn’t matter
“For me, size isn’t important,” she says on how she picks film roles, and why. “The story is.”
She enjoyed working for director John Madden on the 1997 film Mrs Brown so much that she wrote to him afterwards saying she’d love to work with him again, irrespective of the role, or how much dialogue there was for her. Madden duly offered her the part of Elizabeth I in his next film, Shakespeare in Love. She was on screen for less than 10 minutes, but her impact was huge. She won an Oscar for it.
Be receptive to flattery
While it is difficult to imagine Dame Judi Dench and Hollywood action hero Vin Diesel even in the same room, they’ve nevertheless worked together – on The Chronicles of Riddick. It was hardly typical Dench fare – the 2004 sci-fi film was about bounty hunters and “necromongers” – but the collab happened simply because Diesel wanted it to.
“He came to see me at the Haymarket Theatre to ask if I’d be in it, and before he arrived sent such a massive bunch of flowers they couldn’t get up the stairs to my dressing room. You can’t say no to a man like that.”
Stay young
There exists a somewhat cloying tendency to infantilise our favoured older people – celebrated actors and grandparents alike – and coddle them like accessories. The recipients do not always appreciate such attention.
“There is nothing to recommend ageing,” Dench asserts. “It’s hell. People say, ‘Oh but think of all the things you’ve learned’. I’d rather be younger and dumber!”
Age, she insists, is a state of mind. “I refuse to be beaten by it. I’m too much in love with life. Do not retire, do not go gentle, don’t even think about going quietly. The older you get,” she says, paraphrasing the poet WB Yeats, “the louder you should sing”.
‘Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?’ by Judi Dench is published by Michael Joseph, £25
