The Divine Dame Judi turns in another Oscar-buzzing performance in Mrs. Henderson Presents." She spoke with Newsweek's Nicki Gostin.
Newsweek: You play a widow and you lost your husband recently. Could you relate?
Judi Dench: Well, in that you know if that is what's happening to the character you're playing then I understood. But I don't want to make her like me.
Newsweek: What did you do after your husband died?
Judi Dench: I worked. A lot of people accused me of running away from something, but for me it wasn't like that.
Newsweek: How do you work?
Judi Dench: I work entirely on instinct, nothing else. I'm a kind of animal. I'm not intellectual in any way. I never read plays; I just do them because someone asked me to. Tony Hopkins and I didn't know how "Antony and Cleopatra" ended during our first read-through.
Newsweek: Isn't that a bit naughty?
Judi Dench: Not naughty. Dangerous. I've gotten myself into real trouble by saying yes to a play, then going to the first reading and realizing, "This is a bummer!"
Newsweek: You started making films quite late in your career.
Judi Dench: The reason why I never made films earlier was because my face wasn't right for film and I was told that. I was hurt, but now that I've become older, it's becoming more acceptable.
Newsweek: There's some nudity in the movie. Would you be nude in a movie?
Judi Dench: I've been nude in two things.
Newsweek: Would you do it now?
Judi Dench: Well, not unless I wanted to frighten the horses.
Newsweek: Bob Hoskins is briefly in the nude. Did you sneak a peek?
Judi Dench: Of course! Don't think I'm going to let Bob Hoskins take all his clothes off and me not take a look? I just had a quick look up and down, like you would.
Thanks to Cindy Lou Fiorina for sending this article which appears in Newsweek in the January 9, 2006 edition.