Even in a sci-fi flick, Dench is more than just another dame
These days, matriarchs are Dame Judi Dench‘s specialty: royal, familial, even official, like her spymistress M in the James Bond films.
But the esteemed British actress sees herself in a different light. Dench likens her ethereal space diplomat in the new science fiction film “The Chronicles of Riddick” not to her aging Virgin Queen in “Shakespeare in Love” but to that film’s fellow Oscar-winner, Gwyneth Paltrow.
“Perhaps after ‘Riddick,’ audiences will think I’m this thing I’ve always longed to be: the tall, willowy blond,” says Dench, 69, who sports cascading locks in the film and floats on air. “In fact, I act that all the time, until I catch myself in a mirror. Inside, I am absolutely that!”
Audiences who know her from “Shakespeare in Love” and her other Oscar-nominated performances in “Mrs. Brown,” “Chocolat” and “Iris” may be surprised to see Dench sharing the screen with action star Vin Diesel.
“It is a complete departure,” she admits. “But I’ve never wanted to take the safe option — never. It’s a new challenge. I think it’s very boring to do the same thing all the time.”
Dench says Diesel charmed her when he visited her during her run in David Hare‘s play “The Breath of Life.”
“Vin was chivalrous,” she says. “He came to London and gave me flowers I couldn’t take upstairs, they were so large. I never read the script, since I never got over the asking. I was excited about being wooed to do this film.”
Although she’s always dabbled in films, Dench is regarded as the greatest British stage actress of the last half-century.
Her movie career gathered momentum when she played M for the first time in the 1995 Bond entry “GoldenEye.” She then starred as Queen Victoria, grief-stricken by the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1997’s “Mrs. Brown.”
A few years later, Dench lost her own husband, actor Michael Williams. They married in 1971 and performed together often.
In 1999, Dench learned, while doing “Amy’s View” on Broadway, that Williams had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He died in January 2001.
“After Michael passed away, work was the great consolation,” she says. “I did (movies like) ‘The Shipping News,’ ‘Iris,’ ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ often with just a few days in between.
“I don’t suppose I’ll ever adapt to life without Michael. I think if one is fortunate to have a happy marriage for a very long time, and lucky enough to have experienced love, you never get over losing it — but you do learn to live with it. Yet sometimes the loss catches you unawares, which is like a punch in the solar plexus.”
As for peppering her illustrious career with action movies like “Riddick,” Dench relies on her intuition.
“I take the work very seriously, but not myself, and I think that’s a saving grace,” she says. “I go utterly on instinct. It is all I ever act on, and all I ever go by.”
The birthday bunch
TV host Ralph Edwards (“This Is Your Life”) is 91. Actor Malcolm McDowell is 61. Actor Richard Thomas is 53. Comedian Tim Allen is 51. Actress Ally Sheedy is 42. “The Early Show” co-host Hannah Storm is 42. Singer-guitarist Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) is 34. Actor Steve-O (“Jackass”) is 30. Actor Ethan Embry (“Dragnet”) is 26. Singer Raz B (B2K) is 19. Actresses Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen are 18.