I love being a dame, but please, just call me Julie
DAME JULIE WALTERS has said she is too embarrassed to use her honorific title, saying it would be the equivalent of waving an award in people’s faces.
The actress was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire by the Queen at Buckingham Palace last November, which she described as “a lovely thing” and “a massive pat on the back”. However, when she was asked if she called herself “Dame Julie”, she replied: “No, I’d never do that, ever! It’s just a nice thing to have. You don’t carry Baftas around with you.”
Recalling the investiture ceremony, she said: “I felt very lucky to receive it from the Queen, as she doesn’t do many these days. She said, ‘I’m so glad you’re getting this’.”
Not every actor is so reticent. Sir Ben Kingsley said after receiving his knighthood: “There is no Mr Ben Kingsley any more. Being a Sir brings with it responsibility.” He later softened his stance, and agreed the title should not have been used on a film poster.
Several years after she was made a dame, Dame Helen Mirren said she could not bring herself to use the title and seeing it on letters addressed to her made her “feel a little peculiar”.
Dame Julie is returning to the big screen in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, a sequel to the 2008 hit film. She had planned to scale back her work in her 60s but, at 68, finds herself more in demand than ever. “I wouldn’t do things for the sake of working, it’s just that great things have come up,” she said.
The interview is in the August issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale July 4.