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Judi Dench on Acting Regal
Actress Discusses
What it Takes to Play a Queen on Stage, Screen
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June 17, 2004 -- Judi Dench has won major acting awards on both sides
of the Atlantic, including the Oscar, the Tony and six Oliviers (England's
top theatrical honor). The British actress is famous for Shakespearean
roles, but she's also played spy chief M in James Bond films and currently
appears in the Vin Diesel science fiction action flick The Chronicles
of Riddick.
NPR's Susan
Stamberg interviews Dench about the art of acting.
Dench, who
became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988, is something of an
expert on acting regal. She played Queen Victoria in the 1997 movie,
Mrs. Brown. As Queen Elizabeth I in 1998's Shakespeare in Love,
she won an Oscar for best supporting actress.
So, what does it
take to be a queen? Dench says she tries to absorb what she knows about
the character -- her background, her fears -- "and then somehow [tries] to
distill it." Wearing an Elizabethan costume, complete with stiff corset
and a ruff around the neck helps as well. "It informs the way [the
character] moves," she says.
Related NPR Stories
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Review: 'Iris'
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Web Resources
•Judi
Dench Chronology
•A Judi
Dench Bio
•Dench
Filmography
•Dench's
Awards
•The
BBC's 'As Time Goes By'
New
Transcript of the Radio Broadcast
National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Morning Edition (10:00 AM ET) - NPR
June 17, 2004 Thursday
HEADLINE: Dame Judi Dench
ANCHORS: STEVE INSKEEP
REPORTERS: SUSAN STAMBERG
BODY: STEVE INSKEEP, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Renee Montagne is on vacation.
I'm Steve Inskeep.
Judi Dench has won all the big acting awards, the Oscar, the Tony, six
Oliviers--that's England's top theatrical honor. The British actress got
another award recently from The Shakespeare Theatre here in Washington.
NPR
special correspondent Susan Stamberg went to watch Judi Dench as she met
with students at the theater's academy.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Dame JUDI DENCH (Actress): Please, I'm not good at just saying things,
so please, if there's anything I can answer, or I think I can answer,
please
just ask me.
SUSAN STAMBERG reporting:
Dame Judi--'Just call me Judi,' she says--Dame Judi Dench is 69 years
old and tiny, 5'1 3/4" inches, which makes her elfin tiny, except she is
too
majestic for elfin. Judi Dench sat comfily in her tan pantsuit and told
backstage stories collected over 50 years.
Dame JUDI: I never left the wings of the Old Vic, ever. I was there from
1957 to the end of 1961, and I never, ever went to my dressing room. I
used
to stand at the stage and watch, all the time, because only from that, you
know, do you learn.
STAMBERG: Here's how one of the world's greatest actresses warms up
before a performance.
Dame JUDI: I do all those articulate--you know, (makes noises), all that.
STAMBERG: Judi Dench has (makes noises) before playing most of
Shakespeare's great women on stage. On television, she's done some 68
episodes of the BBC series "As Time Goes By." And on screen, she's been M,
the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service in four "James Bond"
films. She's also something of an expert on acting regal. Dench played
Queen Victoria, aka "Mrs.Brown," in that 1997 movie, and won her Oscar as
Queen Elizabeth in "Shakespeare in Love."
Judi Dench told the acting students about meeting today's Queen
Elizabeth in 1988, when she was named Dame Commander of the British
Empire.
Dame JUDI: And so when I went up to see the queen, she said to me, 'I did
admire your tapestry at the Ideal Hahn exhibition(ph).' So I thought, now
is
this like...
STAMBERG: I wonder if you were aware that you sat up straighter when you
spoke...
Dame JUDI: Did I?
STAMBERG: ...and imitated her. So to be a queen, Judi Dench, what does
it take? Does it start with the posture, with the...
Dame JUDI: No, no, no. Like any part, the kind of person that character
is informs the way you move or the way you--I mean, if you're going to
play
the Countess of Rousillon in "All's Well," you are actually put, as I was,
in an Elizabethan costume that makes you stand in a way, with a ruff
around,
so your head is also supported, so it informs the way she moves.
STAMBERG: When you were Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love," you
had that corset, you had that high ruff, and you had eight minutes on the
screen and won the Oscar for best supporting actress.
(Soundbite of "Shakespeare in Love")
Dame JUDI: (As Queen Elizabeth I) I've seen you. You are the one who
comes to all the plays at Whitehall with Richmond.
Unidentified Woman: Your majesty.
Dame JUDI: (As Queen Elizabeth I) What do you love so much?
Unidentified Woman: Your majesty...
Dame JUDI: (As Queen Elizabeth I) Speak up, girl. I know who I am.
I approached it in exactly the same way as I've approached every single
part I've ever played: Try and absorb what you know about that character,
know that she was a monarch for so long, that she was frightened of
marriage, know that she was so feared, and then somehow try to distill it.
(Soundbite of "Shakespeare in Love")
Dame JUDI: (As Queen Elizabeth I) Do you love stories of kings and
queens, of feats of arms? Or is it courtly love?
Unidentified Woman: I love theater. To have stories acted for me by a
company of fellows is indeed...
Dame JUDI: (As Queen Elizabeth I) They are not acted for you, they are
acted for me.
STAMBERG: That's the point at which, with "Shakespeare in Love," that
despite your long and highly honored career in theater in England, I think
that's a point at which America came to know Judi Dench. It's something
about the power of that huge screen. And I wonder what difference that's
made to your career, or to you personally, the fact that this enormous
continent is there, too?
Dame JUDI: Many people said to me, 'Apart from "As Time Goes By" and
"Mrs. Brown" and M in the "Bond" films, have you done anything else?' So
you
think, yes, in the interim, I've spent 38 years doing ...(unintelligible).
STAMBERG: But isn't that annoying? Come on.
Dame JUDI: No, no. No, it wasn't.
STAMBERG: Really, what an incredible career.
Dame JUDI: No, it wasn't annoying at all. It was as exciting as it is to
find that I have a great fan base of 11-year-old boys who think that M is
the coolest thing on legs. You know, it's doing something different. It's
appealing to another audience, and I think if those young men who love
"James Bond" and think you're very cool as M, and my grandson's going to
be
seven and I see that his school friends are suddenly allowed to see "Bond"
and suddenly think, 'Good God, it's Sam's grandma,' you know--they might
go
to the theater later. They might go and want to see more things.
(Soundbite of "As Time Goes By" music)
STAMBERG: "As Time Goes By" is my favorite Saturday night date here in
Washington, DC.
(Soundbite of "As Time Goes By" music)
Unidentified Man: (Singing) You must remember this, a kiss is...
STAMBERG: There's no greater pleasure than to sit down and watch that
series.
Dame JUDI: It's been going over a long time.
STAMBERG: And between you and Geoffrey Palmer, a grown-up love.
Dame JUDI: Yes.
(Soundbite of "As Time Goes By")
Mr. GEOFFREY PALMER: (As character) This slowing down, joints clicking,
seems to happen earlier with men. There's another thing: could I protect
you?
Dame JUDI: (As character) Protect me?
Mr. PALMER: (As character) Yes.
Dame JUDI: (As character) Who from?
Mr. PALMER: (As character) Well, I don't know, an attacker.
Dame JUDI: (As character) I don't know what that means. This attack
isn't imminent, is it?
Mr. PALMER: (As character) No, of course not. I was just supposing.
Dame JUDI: (As character) What's it matter?
Mr. PALMER: (As character) It's all the things I can't do anymore, all
the things we can't do anymore.
Dame JUDI: (As character) Oh, you make it sound as if our relationship is
based on one long series of athletic events.
It's a working relationship, and that's the most exciting thing of all,
whether you're with Geoffrey or whether you're with Ian McKellen or
whether
you're with Kevin Spacey or whether you're with, you know, Maggie Smith or
whoever.
STAMBERG: What was it you did with Anthony Hopkins, and it was just the
two of you and so you asked the director for permission not to block every
move in the scene?
Dame JUDI: That was certain scenes in "Antony and Cleopatra" at the
National. You know, the chemistry between Antony and Cleopatra is very,
very, very volatile, and the fear that you have anyway in playing great
parts that people have played before is considerable. Huge long parts,
hers
much longer than his. She goes into the whole of the fifth act without
him,
and on the monuments he knew he was dying, he used to say to me, 'I'm
going
for a lovely sit-down and a cup of tea.' And I said, 'And I am doing the
whole of the fifth act.'
STAMBERG: This was on stage, sotto voce.
Dame JUDI: Yes, very quietly. Yes, very, very sotto voce. But Tony is
really a creature of instinct and I am a creature of instinct, and so
therefore, you didn't quite ever know where the other person was coming
from, and that was lively and dangerous.
STAMBERG: Especially when you're doing something night after night after
night.
Dame JUDI: Yes.
STAMBERG: It keeps you on your toes.
Dame JUDI: Absolutely.
STAMBERG: Yeah. You are a Quaker.
Dame JUDI: Yes.
STAMBERG: How does that inform your work, do you think?
Dame JUDI: Oh, it informs my life, and therefore my work.
STAMBERG: I imagine that the silence that you practice as a Quaker would
give tremendous strength in a particular way to the acting.
Dame JUDI: I just think everything, it informs. I mean, I'm not a person
who is easy with my own company, having long days on my own. That's not my
scene at all. But it helps if you somehow can achieve a still center for
part of it.
STAMBERG: It's interesting, though, because in just thinking about the
work, Quakers do so much about community and consensus, and the idea of an
actor coming out of that to say, 'Me, me, me.'
Dame JUDI: Yes, but do we say 'Me, me, me'? I don't think we do. I
think that's not what we do. I think we say, 'Us, us, us' to 'You, you,
you.' This is a story that we're telling. This is my part in it. This, on
the other hand, is his part in it, her part in it, his, his, his. So then
you comprise a whole.
STAMBERG: Dame Judi Dench. She says since becoming Dame Commander of
the British Empire in 1988, she has gotten no more respect, but, quote, "I
just have to behave better now."
I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: You can find photos, film clips and more on Judi Dench's
acting career at npr.org
Thanks to Cindy Lou
F, VA, USA for sharing this |
