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Parkinson Interview |
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Link to the ITV Parkinson Webpage for this interview ... includes video clips More Screen Captures Below Read the Transcript Hope you enjoy the clips !
WMP Video Clip # 01
WMP Video Clip
# 02
Transcript of Dame Judi's portion of this show: Michael: My next guest was recently voted the most respected and liked individual in the United Kingdom, even beating the Queen. She's as a beloved as a person as she is admired as one of the great actors of her generation. Ladies and gentlemen, Dame Judy Dench. (Applause) Michael: Isn't it wonderful when people dress up? You look lovely, the two of you. Marvellous. Judi: I've led this rather quiet life. This doctor's daughter from York who's led a very, very life I realise. You've put me to shame. (Laughter) Sharon: No drugs? (Laughter) Judi: Not a thing. Michael: All of us by comparison have led a sober and boring life, compared to that. Was that the most remarkable story you've heard? Judi: Yes. Michael: It was extraordinary wasn't it? Let's talk about you. Ladies in Lavender, the film which I saw, your new film with Maggie Smith. Was that the reason that you chose the film, because of Maggie? Judi: No, the reason I chose the film was because it was Charlie Dance's first attempt at making a film. Michael: That's right. Judi: And he wrote a beguiling letter and said he'd found this short story and he thought he'd turn it into a film and he said, "Would you do it, with Mags?" And I said, "Sure." Michael: Did you read the script... you never read scripts before hand do you? Judi: No, Michael, no! Why break the habit of a lifetime! (Laughter) Michael: So you know whether it's any good or not! Judi: Well I don't. I only ever do it for who asks and who is in it. And so Charlie was a very good reason and so was Maggie. Michael: Of course you go back a long way, don't you, you and Maggie? Judi: We go back to nineteen fifty-eight at the old Vic. Michael: Really, what was that? Judi: That was The Double Dealer and As You Like It, I think that was all we did then. Escaping all the time in The Double Dealer from Miles Malleson, nobody here is old enough to remember Miles Malleson. Michael: I remember him very well! Judi: Well you and I would remember him. (Laughter) Michael: A rather large man with a florid appearance. Judi: No; pale. And he's the man who wore a wig on a wig on a wig (laughter) and it was in The Double Dealer he did it. He was very, very bald and he used to wear a little bit of hair across here, and in The Double Dealer he had to have a huge long curly wig which was knocked off and underneath was a bald wig (laughter), so he wore his piece then he wore a bald wig, then he wore this thing like cat! (Laughter) And somebody said he carries round a tin of dandruff in his pocket! (Laughter) And he used to chase us. I know exactly why you're sitting like that (to Sharon who is sitting cross-legged on her chair) I can' keep up! (Judi tries to sit cross-legged on her chair, laughter, applause) Michael: I just said to Sharon I wish I could do that! Judi: It's a joke chair isn't it? Sharon: Go on take your shoes off! (to Michael) Michael: Well even if I did I couldn't get up like that for god's sake! (Laughter) I'd have to sit on the back of the chair! What other actors have pursued you, in your career? Judi: Gerry Mulligan. Well he's not an actor, he was, well he is, a famous musician. He is still isn't he? Michael: Absolutely. Judi: He pursued me in New York, that was good. Michael: You enjoyed that? Judi: Oh yes. Michael: And Sir Ralph Richardson I read in research? Judi: Sir Ralph? No he didn't ever pursue me Sir Ralph, but I went out when I was being wooed by Michael he was doing a film with Sir Ralph and Sir John, out in Yugoslavia, and Michael said to me, at coffee time in the morning, we all have coffee and Sir Ralph has what he calls Mr Gordon, which was a huge gin! (Laughter) He also warned me before hand that when he drinks it he doesn't sip it, he just drinks it, and we all had coffee and I was standing there kind of being camp follower and everybody had their coffees, and Sir Ralph got his gin like that and he went straight down (pretends to down a drink) didn't even touch the sides of his mouth! (Laughter) And we all went out to dinner that evening and he said to Michael, "May I whisper something to her?" And Michael said, "By all means." And he bit me on the ear! (Laughter) I said, "Ralph that wasn't a whisper!" He said, "No, but what's a bite between friends!" (Laughter) Wonderful. Michael: He was incredibly eccentric wasn't he? Judi: And such a divine actor. Michael: So let's now talk about... she's there, Maggie Smith, you've got a lovely location in Cornwall. Judi: And wonderful weather. Michael: It looked wonderful. Nice ruddy complexions. Judi: We all swam! We all swam! Michael: Basically it's a kind of fairy story isn't it? Judi: It is a fairy story. I am deeply practical, boring and practical. I kept saying, I suppose I shouldn't say too much about the film, but somebody is washed up on the shore and I kept saying, "Where has he come from, where is he going to?" And Charlie said, "Don't ask those kind of questions, it's meant to be a fairy tale and as such that's what it must be." Michael: Well you and Maggie play these two sisters Judi: Dotty sisters. Michael: Dotty sisters, and there haven't been too many men in your lives at all. Judi: No men in mine, have there been. But Mags has had one chap hasn't she, who was killed, but my poor old character hasn't seen the light of day. (Laughter) Michael: Not a sausage, so to speak. Judi: Not a sausage! (Laughter) If only! Michael: You know I didn't intend that! As soon as I said sausage I couldn't stop myself! (Laughter) Let's have a look at a clip from the film, the boy has been washed ashore, you take him in, and there's a moment, you develop a kind of frisson toward him and it's not reciprocated. Judi: He doesn't speak any English. Michael: He doesn't speak English and here you are trying to teach him the language. (Excerpt from Ladies in Lavender) (Applause) Michael: Did you actually, I mean apart from not reading scripts before you say yes I'm going to do it, you also never watch a film you're in do you? Judi: No, I had to watch that. Michael: You did watch it? Judi: Because I went to Taormina and watched it. Michael: Oh, Taormina. Beautiful. Judi: On that huge screen, which is about twice the size of this studio, with Mount Etna behind it. Michael: Isn't that setting something else? Judi: It's staggering. But you're really large on it aren't you! Shut one eye..? There's no way of missing it when it's right in your face. Michael: Why don't you like seeing yourself on screen? Judi: You know why I don't like it Michael! Because I'm this five foot ten tall, willowy blond (laughter), I can't bear seeing a dwarf -- come on! (Laughter, applause) Michael: You really think you're hideous then? Judi: And also you know the choices you make when you play a part, you know it's like a huge console in front of you with all these buttons, you think shall I do a bit of that and a bit of that and you put it together, and in your mind it's different from what you see on the screen. You think if I'd known it was going to be like that I wouldn't have done that. And yet I can't also, bring myself to go and see the dailies either, I couldn't do that. I never go back the next day. Michael: That begs the question why become an actor? Judi: It's a way of hiding. Michael: It's that? Judi: Yes it is. You know it's like, doing this show is much, much more frightening to me than doing King Lear! (Laughter) You don't want a bit of King Lear now do you? (Laughter) Michael: I'm old enough! I'm growing into the part! Judi: We (to Sharon) could play those two girls. Michael: That would be a frightening thought! Judi: We'd frighten you all! Michael: Speaking of which, you're now approaching your seventieth birthday... Judi: And you! (Laughter, applause) Michael: And me! Judi: I read it the other day! I read it the other day. Michael: But I wasn't being accusatory at all. Judi: No, you were! You said it though. I'm approaching my fiftieth birthday. (Laughter) Michael: Listen you'll have great difficulty actually disputing that because it will become public knowledge soon because there's a book being published soon to celebrate your seventieth birthday, which is the only reason I brought it up, otherwise I would not have mentioned it Dame Judi. Judi: Thank you. (Laughter) Michael: Said he, lying swiftly. (Laughter) But really what comes through in that book, which I've read, but you're not allowed to read it yet, is this wonderful knack you have of not taking yourself seriously; of taking the job seriously but not yourself. Judi: Didn't Johnny Depp say about three days ago, it's a child's job? And I thought oh that's a brilliant thing to say, because in a way it is. A serious child's job! (Laughter) I mean it's wonderful if you're able to do it and you like doing it, you know, I run to work in the morning. Quarter to five! (Laughter) But we mustn't take ourselves too seriously; I don't want to work with someone who hasn't got a sense of humour. Michael: No, well that's the important thing about it, the sense of humour, and you've got a highly developed one. But tell us a couple of stories about this sort of sense of humour, to start with you're rather accident prone aren't you? Judi: Yes, I've just had a fall three weeks ago. Michael: You did? A bad fall? Judi: I was off the film for a week. Michael: Really? Judi: Yes, I fell down some stairs and they thought I'd smashed my hip bone. But as you see I haven't! (Laughter) Michael: What about when you were doing Midsummer Night's Dream, and the firemen? What was that story? Judi: That was the film of A Midsummer Night's Dream, after we had done it at Stratford we did a film of it, which also I've never seen and I don't think you should either actually! (Laughter) We were at Compton Verney in Warwickshire and we had no clothes on at all just a few leaves stuck on there, and there was one glorious day when it was meant to rain, and it didn't, so they got the firemen in, so we had dressing gowns on and then suddenly we took the dressing gowns off and we stood there and the rain which was meant to come all over us went all over the shop! (Laughter) This man, the head of the firemen, shouted, "Keep your eyes on your work!" (Laughter) This boy said, "I am sir, I am!" (Laughter) Michael: I went to see you do All's Well at the Gielgud and you were marvellous in that but again there's an indication of some sense of fun that you have in what you did on that appearance. Judi: Appearing in two theatres at the same time? Michael: Exactly, so tell us what you did? Judi: I couldn't resist the fact that I came on for the second half and had one small scene and then I was off until the very, very end and I used to get quite bored sitting in my dressing room. Nobody to play with, they were all on stage, and then suddenly one night I thought I know what I'll do, I know what I'll do, I'll go and appear in Les Mis next door. And so I did! (Laughter) They got me a costume and I got out of this costume and raced along the street in, and then I sat down, and of course in the middle of an actor's nightmare! Because I stood with a whole group of people that I'd never seen before in my life, all dressed up, I didn't know who they were, and somebody said, "I'll hand you a stool" I said, "thank you very much indeed!" (Laughter) And I went on and did the whole of the barricades! (Laugher) And then I race backed for All's Well! (Laughter) And then Jonathan Price wrote to me and said there's a very nice part of a dead goat in our second act if you'd care to drop in at twenty-past nine! (Laughter) Michael: What are you doing at present? You're making another film? An interesting film... Judi: I am yes, with Steven Frears, a real story about the woman who started The Windmill, got all those nudes on stage. Nobody knows about her, they only know about Vivienne Van Damm, in actual fact her name was Laura Henderson, she was frightfully rich, her husband died, her son was killed in the First World War and she was left with rather a lot of money. So she bought The Windmill. Michael: What a good idea! Judi: And then she got round Lord Chamberlain and put all these nudes on stage. It's the most wonderful story. Michael: Good. It's a delight to see you, all the best with the film, Ladies in Lavender it's called, it's good to see you as always. Dame Judi Dench. (Applause) Lots of people to thank for all of this ... Anke B, Germany, for first bringing this interview to our attention Lisa S, UK, for sharing the videotape, screen captures and transcript with us Diane P, UK, for bringing this website link and transcript to our attention
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