On Judi Dench

Judi Dench was drawn to Shakespeare because of the swearing. She wanted to swear on-stage.

Her early performance as Ophelia wowed no one (or almost no one), but she persisted. She did "Juliet" at the age of twenty-five. Her director wanted her to seem fourteen; when she sobbed, she collapsed on the floor, as a child would collapse. Dench also noticed Juliet's 3-D nature. Despite her youth, she has brains. When Romeo becomes florid, Juliet sticks to the facts. "Who are you? What do you want? What is your plan?"

In the middle of her career, Dench triumphed with "Macbeth." She loves this play because it is fast and well-constructed; she says, "Do it without an interval." The Macbeths are not the Nixons; they are the Kennedys. They must seem "aglow with love" at the start. Because Lady Macbeth's "screen-time" is minimal, the actress must plant "seeds of madness" early on; we must see LM slipping as early as the banquet scene. Some critics have complained that a scene is missing; to understand LM's descent into lunacy, we must see a bit more of her. Dench says this is nonsense; you just have to make judicious use of the lines you have. Dench also warns against laughs--in a tragedy. The performer's job is not to call attention to herself; you have to ask, "What is the story we're telling? Am I shedding light on the truth? Is there any new way I can subtract, become subtler, become more efficient, in my role?"

Just a few years ago, in 2015, Dench was back on-stage in "The Winter's Tale," opposite Kenneth Branagh. Her eyesight was already slipping, and Branagh, her great friend, approached her backstage. "You did a nice job, but you didn't direct your remarks toward me. You were talking to a telephone pole...."

I loved this book ("Shakespeare," by Dench). So inspiring.

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