I just want to be called a jobbing actor who has a laugh
As Dame Judi Dench becomes British Vogue’s oldest cover star, MARION McMULLEN looks at the early career of this much-loved leading lady
SHE’S bossed James Bond about, ruled Britain and booked into The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Now Dame Judi Dench has become British Vogue’s oldest cover girl at the age of 85.
Her daughter Finty Williams said of her mum’s appearance on the front of the fashion bible’s June issue: “After the photoshoot, she came back literally thinking she was Beyonce.”
The Oscar-winning actress, born Judith Olivia Dench in York, made her first stage appearance as a snail in a play at her Quaker school and appeared as an angel in one of the York Mystery Plays as a youngster.
She originally planned for a career in theatre design and went to art school, but switched to an acting course at London’s Central School of Drama where she was in the same class as Vanessa Redgrave.
Dame Judi recalled: “I trained as a designer, so I’m always terribly keen about what I’m going to look like.”
One of her first professional stage triumphs was dying for love as Juliet in a 1960 Old Vic production of Shakespeare’s famous romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The production, directed by the legendary Franco Zefirelli, also featured comedy actress Peggy Mount as the Nurse and John Stride as Romeo.
Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan said Zeffirelli had “worked a miracle” in turning the characters into real people and said the fight scenes were particularly realistic.
Dame Judi herself said: “The best moment of playing Juliet is the nanosecond when they offer you the part.”
She also made her mark on stage creating the role of amoral British nightclub performer Sally Bowles in the 1968 London premiere of the musical Cabaret set in Berlin before the Second World War. She has also performed in other musical offerings over the years including singing Send In The Clowns in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and the film version of Nine.
Dame Judi was preparing for the London opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats in 1981 playing Grizabella when she snapped her Achilles tendon during rehearsals and had to leave with production. Elaine Paige took over the role and got to sing the iconic showstopper Memory, but Dame Judi did return to the world of Cats last year to play
Old Deuteronomy in the big-screen adaption of the musical.
Although she was not enamoured with how her cat turned out, revealing in the interview that accompanied her Vogue cover, that she hoped she would look elegant but instead resembled “a battered, mangy old cat”. She added that she had not seen the full movie.
To date Dame Judi has won 10 BAFTAs seven Oliviers, two Golden Globes, a Tony and an Academy Award, since making her stage debut in 1957, but was once dismissed by one director when she auditioned for a movie at the start of her career.
He informed her: “Jolly nice meeting you, but I’m sorry, you won’t ever make a film because your face is wrongly arranged”.
However, on stage her talent was quickly recognised. Her performance as Lady Macbeth, opposite Sir Ian McKellen in director Trevor Nunn’s 1976 production of the Scottish play for the RSC, has been called one of the greatest Shakespearean performances of all time.
Dame Judi became engaged to fellow actor Michael Williams during Christmas 1970 after he proposed to her on a beach in Australia and they married two months later. The couple also starred together in the 1980s in TV sitcom A Fine Romance – with Judi singing the theme song.
Michael, who sadly passed away in 2001, used to have a long-stemmed red rose delivered to her every Friday. The future 007 boss once joked: “My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.”
Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company director Peter Hall had to persuade her to play one of her greatest stage roles, Cleopatra, after she initially refused saying her Egyptian ruler would be a “menopausal dwarf”.
The acclaimed 1987 production of Antony and Cleopatra saw her co-starring alongside Welsh-born actor Anthony Hopkins.
Judi was made a Dame in 1988 and has the words Carpe diem – seize the day – tattooed on her wrist. She was also voted one of the most admired women in the world last year – coming third behind Queen Elizabeth and Michelle Obama.
She insists she has no plans to retire and has four films waiting to be released, but Dame Judi admits she does not enjoy being described as a national treasure.
“It’s some old rock on a cupboard that the glass is shut on and nobody gets it out to dust it,” she said.
“I loathe it. I just want to be called a joker. A jobbing actor. Somebody who has a laugh.”
Read the full feature on Dame Judi in the Vogue June issue, available via digital download and newsstands now.