Cheltenham -- 2002

By Anke B. -- Germany

Cheltenham is a lovely little city Northeast of London. Obviously its literature festival is pretty famous since a lot of other big names besides Judi like Vanessa Redgrave or Peter Ustinov were also on the guest list. October 20^thwas a very cold and rainy day though, yet the town hall building was totally sold out of tickets for the event with Judi and John Miller.

At 2.00 p.m. a president of the festival came on stage and introduced Judi and John Miller to the audience, they took their seats in the middle of the stage. Miller started thanking Judi for coming up this way to talk about the book although she is on stage right now with "Breath of Life" and Sunday being her only day off. He continued about opening nights and how scary they must be and Judi told a story about the opening night of "Filumena" when she had some kind of a block and she couldn’t remember any of the Italian places or words and she replaced them with words more common like "spaghetti" and "pasta".

They went on talking about TEA WITH MUSSOLINI which she did after the run of "Filumena" Judi said that she became quite close with Joan Plowright during that time and told a very funny story how she, Joan and Maggie Smith went swimming in a pool with their wigs on, only in their bras and pants and got surprised by Zeffirelli.

Miller continued asking her whether it was different to win an Oscar than being nominated and Judi said that she doesn’t remember much about what happened after she won, but it is a very "nerve wracking experience". As for being nominated, she explained how she just sits there with a camera right in front of her and tried to look "expecting or whatever" and how "you clap a lot and cheer a lot"

Then, he went on talking about "AMY’S VIEW" asking Judi whether American audiences are different from English audiences and she said that there is a significant difference as American audiences are much more enthusiastic where the English are more reserved. Pretty much the same story she told at the Platform in London. She went on though saying that another difference is that she had a bodyguard called John Lennon during the run in New York and that there were 150 people waiting at the stage door every night, EXCEPT the night when Michael came visiting and she told him about the crowds of people back there waiting for her and THAT night there was only a husband and wife waiting.

Then they talked about her tight schedule last year with doing three movies in a row and about Jim Broadbent and Kevin Spacey and their wonderful sense of humour. I’m afraid from now on she always has to tell the story about the glove, no exception this time. She did reduce it to the main parts though which still got a huge laugh out of the audience in the end. This time she acted out another scene from SHIPPING NEWS. She told the story that in Newfoundland everyone except her had seen a whale and she was so anxious to finally see one. One set was built on a wonderful hill where you could see the water and so right during the scene with Kevin where she had to break down, someone in the back yelled, "WHALE!!!"

So Judi got up from her chair and acted the scene again - it was really funny to see her trying to break down and see the whale outside at the same time.

Another really interesting thing was hearing her talk about BOL. Judi said it was EXTREMELY difficult to learn and that she was never ever in her life more frightened than on that opening night. They didn’t know whether they could actually physically get through it.

She also said that although Maggie "got all the jokes" she would never swap parts with her ‘cause there is a word in the play that she can’t say: "colonial"

She even got on about the critics – she said she had read some of the reviews and what she really resents is that they obviously think its some kind of competition between her and Maggie for billing or acting. They were simply cast as two different people in a play and that it’s certainly "nobody getting up trying to prove something over another person".

After that, the "official" part was over and people were allowed to ask questions. Someone asked whether she is planning to do another musical like "A Little Night Music" and she said she would jump into any opportunity to do "any musical" because she loved doing "Night Music" and "Cabaret" so much.

She was asked how she got along with Billy Connolly and whether she understands his accent. "Not all the time" she answered and about Billy that he is very serious where people think he is a joker all the time and well, that he is "simply wonderful", and "brilliant to work with".

During that audience questioning something funny happened – some kind of loud alarm went on right into one of Judi’s answers and she spontaneously said "HELLO" – everyone laughed and she continued asking whether this means they should stop now.

After that you were allowed to go to a tent outside in the garden where all kinds of books where displayed, among them Judi’s biography. By the time we got there a huge line of people were already waiting for her books to be signed and Judi graciously signed every single one.

It was a totally wonderful hour and Judi was very charming and above all funny - as always.

Thanks to Anke B. for sharing all of these items with us