Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE/ARTS
Thursday 21 sepTember
At 82, Judi Dench’s mission

remains the same: ‘To learn’

By JAKE COYLE er unorthodox relationship fussy, workmanlike attitude.
AP Film Writer Victoria struck up, one only “I love his monosyllabic
TORONTO (AP) — Judi relatively recently discov- quality,” she says, laugh-
Dench is not tired. ered. ing. “Sometimes he says,
“I’ve had one of those pep- Letters and diaries uncov- ‘Would you like to go
up drinks,” Dench, beam- ered in Shrabani Basu’s 2010 again?’ and you know that
ing as she sits down for a re- book revealed the depth he means he would like to
cent interview. “I feel rather of the Queen’s friendship go again. Sometimes he
sparky.” with Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal just walks away and laughs.
In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, Judi Dench, a cast member in the Caffeinated or not, Dench, in the film), a 24-year-old I love that.”
film “Victoria and Abdul,” poses for a portrait during the Toronto 82, remains fully energized. Indian clerk when he ar- “She’s clocked that one,”
International Film Festival in Toronto. As Stephen Frears, the di- rived in 1887, four years af- Frears says of his subtle di-
rector of her latest film, ter Brown’s death. Despite rections. “She’s a highly in-
“Victoria & Abdul,” mar- the staunch disapproval by telligent woman.”
vels: “She’s the biggest the royal court of a Mus- Frears, the veteran director
female star in Britain” — a lim being Victoria’s close of “The Queen” and “Dan-
statement that takes a mo- confidant, he became her gerous Liaisons,” said he
ment to realize how true it teacher, or munshi, and would only make “Victoria
is. “It’s phenomenal at her stayed close to her side up & Abdul” if Dench agreed.
age.” until her death in 1901. “I didn’t know if she would,”
Dench’s eyesight had de- Though Victoria was the says Frears. “It’s possible
teriorated in recent years Empress of India, she knew she turned it down. We or-
due to macular degenera- little of the colony Britain ganized a reading, so we
tion, so scripts need to be was busy ruthlessly exploit- lured her into the trap.”
read to her. But that’s done ing. Karim taught her Urdu Dench was speaking short-
little to slow her down or and Hindi, and exposed ly after the Toronto Interna-
dim her ferocious, mischie- her to curry. Victoria even tional Film Festival premiere
vous intelligence. On her stipulated that Abdul was of “Victoria & Abdul,”
right wrist is a tattoo of her to be one of the principal which may well return the
personal motto, “Carpe mourners at her funeral. highly decorated actress
Diem” (“Seize the Day”). “I certainly never expected to the Academy Awards.
She had it done for her 81st to be playing her again,” Her last visit to Toronto, she
birthday. says Dench. “Suddenly all remembers, was in 1958 on
“The process of learning is the work I had done on a six-month tour for the Old
quite difficult,” she says of that all came back and Vic, playing “Henry V” and
her eyes. “I can do it. I just filled up the character. You “As You Like It.” Dench’s
have to adjust in a different have a character and you stage career — just as illus-
way. You do what you can, have to find out the details trious as her film one — has
don’t you?” of them, it’s like coloring spanned just about every
It’s a spirit of undaunted them in. All that had been Shakespeare, Ibsen and
inquisitiveness that Dench done, so that stood me a Chekov play. There is no
shares with her latest char- very good stead. I did feel I Shakespeare role she’s still
acter, Queen Victoria. In understood about her pre- pining to play, but Dench
Frears’ film, which Focus vious life.” does think time has given
Features will open in lim- “I hope there’s something her a greater understand-
ited release Friday, Dench in the end of (‘Mrs. Brown’) ing of some of her classic
returns to the monarch that you can join up with roles.
she memorably played 20 this,” Dench adds. “When I look back now
years ago in her big-screen It’s not hard to see a com- I know I could play Lady
breakthrough, John Mad- monality between the Macbeth better now,” says
den’s “Mrs. Brown.” Dench Victoria of both films and Dench. “I know I could play
has credited that film — Dench. It’s the queen’s Juliet better now, too. But
and the indie distributor “need for living” and “vi- it’s too late.”
who picked it up for nation- tal passion” that she most Yet Dench is hardly back-
wide release (Harvey Wein- adores about her. “I want ward looking. She’ll also
stein) — with birthing her to learn something new ev- co-star later this fall in Ken-
film career. ery day,” says Dench. “I try neth Branagh’s old-fash-
“Victoria & Abdul” shares to. I learn new words. I love ioned mystery, “Murder on
some DNA with “Mrs. it.” the Orient Express.”
Brown.” The latter chron- “Victoria & Abdul” is “It was glorious,” she says of
icled Queen Victoria’s Dench’s fifth film with the production. “We were
friendship with the Scottish Frears, who last directed on the train. It was just a lot
servant John Brown (Billy her in 2013’s “Philomena,” of good jewelry to wear. A
Connolly) after the death which earned Dench her couple dogs to control.”
of Victoria’s beloved hus- seventh Oscar nomination. Dench planned to spend
band, Prince Albert, in (Her sole win was for her the afternoon at a gallery
1861. “Victoria & Abdul” Queen Elizabeth I in 1999’s to “look at some pictures
takes place about 15 years “Shakespeare in Love.”) quietly.” She remains on
later and concerns anoth- She and Frears share an un- the lookout.q