Dench a hoot talking about ‘Victoria and Abdul’
There is no denying it — it is pretty cool when Dame Judi Dench calls and says, “Hello, Bill? It’s Judi. How is Arizona?”
Imagine that. We’re not friends, sadly. She was calling to talk about “Victoria and Abdul,” in which she plays, for the second time in her career, Queen Victoria, who forms an unlikely friendship with Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) late in her life. But Dench, 82, is so engaging — and that voice! — that she’s easy to talk to. Far from the royalty she sometimes plays (though not as often as you’d think, as you’ll see), she is funny and down-toearth.
Call anytime.
Question: Was there any hesitation to play Victoria again? (She also played the queen in 1997’s “Mrs. Brown.”)
Answer: No, there was no hesitation at all. I thought the script remarkable. I had no intention of ever visiting the part again, but we’ve all learned about this incident in her life very late — only in 2010 were the letters discovered, and the extent of the relationship between them, and the comfort it brought her for the last 13 years of her life. It was very refreshing to find that this was a comfort to her, and a terrible irritation to the rest of the court (laughs).
Q: Unfortunately, the prejudice has contemporary resonance.
A: Yes. Yes. But I think what is wonderful about it is … the passion and the need to relax, to laugh, to share things, to learn from, to teach, overrode any prejudice she might have felt about whatever nationality he was. Q: The relationship is not just emotional but intellectual — she enjoys learning from him.
A: Right. And finding out about things, being curious.
Q: Americans are fascinated with British royalty. Other British actors have said there isn’t as much fascination there. Do you find that there is?
A: Yes, there is a great fascination in Britain. Look at another royal baby has been announced and people are actually delighted. There are a whole lot of people who are elated. And the whole outpouring of everything that happened after (Princess) Diana’s death, you know, it says something very strong, I think, about it. I think the job that the royal family do is phenomenal. I think that they don’t choose to do that, and they have to be on duty, as it were, every single day. They have their whole life mapped out in front of them. … It’s just a huge responsibility.
Q: I’m not sure there is the same fascination in Great Britain with our president. Though maybe at the moment.
A: Ah. Ah, that’s quite a different thing, isn’t it (laughs). Quite.
Q: There are obviously not enough opportunities for older women in film, but you seem game for anything. Is that just the way you live your life?
A: It is a bit. It is a bit. I like working, and I love the process of it and I like doing something a bit different. The more different the next role is, the better I shall probably like it. People keep saying that terrible word “retire” that keeps going around. “When are you going to retire?” I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do that at all. I want to go on till I can’t do it anymore.
Q: Why quit a job you love?
A: Well, quite. We’re the minority if we’re doing a job we like. Think of the people going to work each day who don’t like the job they’re doing. They’re looking forward to when they can retire. Our job is not like that, and you feel fortunate to be employed at it. You can’t be luckier than that.
Q: You continue to find good roles.
A: Yes, it’s true. It’s absolutely true. And it’s good luck. It’s not anything to do with anything else. It’s just good luck to be in a certain place at a certain time.
Q: Maybe, but who else was going to play this role in this film but you?
A: Oh, there were lots of people. Believe me, there was a huge queue just standing behind my left shoulder (laughs). Oh, you bet.
Q: There’s an extended scene in which you eat a lot. That probably didn’t happen in one take.
A: No, it didn’t. I had to eat all that food. In the scene in the bedroom with the boiled egg, at the end of shooting, which took all morning, the props man said to me, “Out of interest, would you like to know how many boiled eggs you’ve eaten?” I said I would, actually. He said, “11.” So I cut having lunch that day (laughs). I didn’t go in for lunch. I don’t think I went in for supper, either.
Q: Seriously, how do you stay in character while eating the 11th egg?
A: You just have to do that. That’s the job. That’s the job. In “Saigon — Year of the Cat” I had to swim in a little kind of creek of water. I kept saying, “It’s all right in here, is it?” They said oh yes, it’s absolutely fine, there’s nothing else swimming around in here (laughs), I should be fine. Well anyway, we did it, and we did it I suppose in about six takes, and just after I got out, the most enormous water monitor (giant lizard) got out of the water on the other side and walked over by the trunk of a tree. I was very unnerved by that. I’m glad I didn’t know it before I went into the water.
Q: I’ll bet that was the last take.
A: Yes it was (laughs). And for the water monitor.
Q: You often play royalty or prim-andproper characters, but that doesn’t seem to really be you.
A: Right. It’s not meant to be. It’s not meant to be me. People say oh, you’ve played royalty a lot. I haven’t played royalty a lot at all. I’ve played Elizabeth I once, and I’ve played Queen Victoria twice and I played Cleopatra on stage. That’s all the royalty I’ve ever played in 60 years. So I don’t know, I don’t know why they should think that is more me than playing some kind of slut who lives down the street (laughs). I don’t know why that should be. It’s got nothing to do with me. You know, it’s parts I play.
Q: I have to ask: Did you really get a tattoo?
A: Oh, that was a present from my daughter. It’s just mine. You can’t see it. It’s hidden under my bracelets. It’s just for me to see. And I don’t want any more. It’s just for me. And it was a present. So, that’s good.