Walking the specially made orange carpet for the London premiere of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Dame Judi Dench had every reason to smile. Turning 80 in December last year, and celebrating nearly 60 years in the business, the actress is truly a stalwart of British cinema.
But while on the surface she appears fearless, forthright and seemingly infallible, underneath lays a deep-seated fear of being forgotten that’s plagued her since her early years in the industry. “[Sir] Trevor Nunn [artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company] came to wish me luck one night before a performance and said, ‘Why are you always in tears on the first night?’ ‘Cos’ I said, ‘it’s because I never think I’m going to be employed again.’
“Although it’s been quite a jokey, light-hearted thing to say, in the depths of me, I still have that fear. Perhaps it’s very healthy to be like that. Perhaps I don’t want it to change.” It’s no surprise then that she jumped at an opportunity to return to India for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Starring alongside returning cast members Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Bill Nighy – as well as new addition Richard Gere – Dame Judi was thrilled to be back amongst friends and takes the film’s theme of finding fun in later life to heart. “It’s a very good leaf to take out of a book,” she said at the London premiere in Leicester Square. “That is not to give in and not to think you can’t do something because you are a certain age, or so I keep telling myself.”
The cast of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at the London premiere last month.
Coming back for a sequel to the surprise 2011 hit was an easy decision for Dame Judi because it also meant reuniting with one particular co-star that’s close to her heart – India. Having travelled extensively for her profession, particularly though Canada, Australia, Japan, the US and West Africa, the actress is no stranger to exotic locations. But there was something about the South Asian country that caused her to lose her heart to India.“I couldn’t wait to get back,” she says. “And like those places that you perhaps go to in your childhood that you think, ‘Well, I can’t quite go back because it’s not going to be the same.’ You know? Well, it was the same, only better.”
Her love for the country was one aspect of her on-screen character Evelyn that she didn’t have to fake. Travelling to India for the first shoot – which lasted eight weeks – left her profoundly altered for the better, she confides. So it was with a warm sense of familiarity that she returned for the second stint of filming. “There are a lot of things one must come to terms with [in India] and I thought I wouldn’t be very brave about it, but I was enchanted by the people. [Also] 70% of the crew from the first film came back to work on this one.”
One thing that hasn’t been easy to come to terms with for the Oscar winner is ageing. In 2012, Dame Judi, who is world renowned for her stage performances in Shakespeare’s plays, revealed she was suffering from macular degeneration, for which she has been treated with injections into the eye. She downplayed its effect on her career at first, but early last year, admitted she requires an aid to help her with scripts. “I can’t read any more. I can’t paint like I used to. I try to watch movies, but it’s quite difficult. But these are all of the negatives. I don’t want to really think about all that. What I can do, I do. And I somehow get by.”
Judi with her only child, actress Finty Williams, in London last year.
In true Dame Judi fashion, she’s never let challenges deter her from the screen or stage, and continues to quash any talk of retirement – telling Graham Norton recently it “drives me absolutely spare” when asked if she’s ready to end her acting career. “People love to tell you your age – and I loathe it. You get to a certain age and they say, ‘Oh, you mustn’t do that’ or ‘You might have a fall.’ I want to try it first. And, if I don’t succeed, then I can be told I can’t do it. But let us all have a go. As long as you can keep the engine going, you won’t fall over.”
One popular role that sadly came to an end in 2012 was as M in the James Bond franchise. Encouraged to audition for the part by her late husband Michael Williams, who “wanted to live with a Bond woman”, Dame Judi was surprised to find herself grief-stricken when she learned the character would be written out of the film series.
“[The producers] told me gently and I laughed through my tears,” she recalls. “Seven Bond films is a long time. But MI6 would have given her the push by now, don’t you think?” There is one particular aspect of filming the James Bond films that she sorely misses – the exotic locations. “I don’t like seeing these pictures in the Swiss Alps doing these great ski things, having all the fun,” she says, before adding in jest, “But I bet it was very cold, very dangerous!”
Daniel Craig was certainly a wild card – a blond Bond! – when he first got the job after Pierce Brosnan, but the plucky dame isn’t one to follow Hollywood opinions. Having worked with both Daniel and Pierce, she says it’s “impossible to choose” her favourite, calling them both “so wonderful and each brought such life to the part”.
Another trend she’s bucking is plastic surgery, saying she’s not “vain enough” to get work done. “There are fewer jobs for women than there are for men, so that’s difficult unless you have your face done and fixed and everything. It’s very important in Hollywood that people do that. “But I’m not tempted – I’m too much of a coward. I don’t want to end up as a Picasso! “It’s not that I don’t mind the lines, because I do, but just not enough to do anything. [Plus] my agent would go barmy. I’d do myself out of the parts for old people.”
Inspired by her time working in India, Judi is considering getting a tattoo of an Indian symbol.
There is one trendy item she has considered getting – a tattoo. When Dame Judi celebrated her 80th birthday last December, her daughter Finty Williams (42) encouraged her mum to think about getting some ink on her wrist. “There’s an Indian symbol that I like which supposedly represents life and love and everything,” says Dame Judi. “One of the cameramen who worked on the film told me what it meant, but I was a bit nervous in case it was a setup – it might be unbelievably rude!”
Like other older women in her profession, Dame Judi reveals she became “really upset when I was 40” and does “hate being the age I am now”, but with films such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel offering interesting parts for older women, she does “feel very positive about [women in film over 50] at the moment”. “I’m terribly lucky. It wouldn’t do, if I was any younger, to be in this film. I couldn’t be any more thrilled. Actresses my age, we can’t pick and choose any more. Other than playing some batty old person! Those are the parts we have to go for now!”
She’s still hoping for more variety, however, and wants to shy away from any stereotype – even if that means moving into a fantasy realm! “I keep saying to my agent, ‘Can’t you find me a play where it’s about an Afghan woman who learns to walk a tightrope and in the last act is turned into a dragon?’”
Words by: Sylvia Thompson
