Judi Dench

please welcome to the stage now in his 23rd year the president of borough of Manhattan Community College dr. Antonio Perez thank you we're delighted to have the New York Times popular culturally significant conversation series time talks here at BMCC as some of you may know the Rebecca T pact is part of BMCC and it's the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan we reach audiences from all over the tri-state as well as the BMCC community by presenting high quality music theater dance and more we look forward to your return in support of upcoming events that take place here at the college but let me just share with you a second who we are for Burhan Community College the largest undergraduate institution of higher education in New York City with over 27,000 students they come to us from a hundred and fifty different countries and speak over a hundred different languages so it's my pleasure to introduce you to for those of you new here to a culturally diverse institution that serves ever striving young people who want a better future for themselves and help you return and become a part of our community thank you [Applause] good evening everyone I'm Michele gray the director of programming for the New York Times live conversation performance and screening Series x talks which pairs New York Times journalists with the brightest and bothers creative minds from the fields of film theater music art fashion literature and science tonight I'm delighted to welcome you to tonight's event with the legendary Oscar BAFTA and Golden Globe willing winning actress Dame Judi Dench one of the most beloved and prolific actors of our time Dench has once again reprised her role as British royalty in her upcoming film Victoria and Abdul about an unlikely but devoted friendship between a young Indian clerk and Queen Victoria this evening gents Dench and New York Times contributing writer Logan Hill will discuss her decades-long career her vibrant third act as an actor and her return to play in Queen Victoria in this extraordinary untold true story please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Logan Hill and Dame Judi Jim send a flower that was a nice welcome for me you guys are so kind the media isn't treated with much respect normally I really appreciate that round of applause of course we're thrilled to have Judi Dench here today good news if you'd like to ask her a question is that we'll have about 20 minutes at the end we'll have I will take questions both from all of you here we're gonna have microphones set up on either side down at the bottom and we'll also take questions from all the fine folks watching us in facebook world so please leave your comments and the questions online and in the comments on your questions in the comments online rather and we'll try to take as many as we can later on how's New York treating it how is New York treating yes that what you say yeah how's it going well we we've we've been in Venice and then we were in London and there we were in Toronto and now we're in New York and tomorrow we're in Los Angeles I don't know you know I'm on a big joy I don't know where I am but I've had and we've had a very nice time and you must be used to these whirlwind trips to the city it sounds like you would talk to you briefly backstage and you said you found a little time to get over to MoMA today we are yes I've done a lot of damage in MoMA I hope my earrings can be seen there are safety pins in my hair while they're hoping that I'm you know it I'd be caught out that I suddenly put a safety pin through my ear it's very pump right there's a good idea do you feel like now that you have a tattoo I didn't you have to accessorize more with like yeah since that to a person carpe diem saved the day and I mean the seize the day and what um what what you got this last year like I've been thinking about I'm too old I got it two years ago as a complete surprise on my birthday walking up some Martins Lane in London with my daughter and she suddenly said are you game for a tattoo now I said you bet so we went in and there I couldn't I couldn't possibly it couldn't possibly be be painful as it was a person lying about here having their entire leg done the whole leg all the way I thought well I can't come train but are you now some people get their first tattoo and it's like the gateway tattoo they want anymore that's it I feel is it as part of it that now now that you're the very respectable Dame Judi Dench know that you want to shake that out that completely wrong it's very unrespectable do you feel that the more words you win the that the more typecast you get as sort of a year of the theater and film and television and you need to remind people that no I get I don't think that at all yeah no I think I think um I think getting Awards is very good back but I don't I don't necessarily think that it gets you cast more or you know or any grander or you know I just think it's good luck and I'm jelly nice and then you have to get y'all and do the next job yeah at the point right I was thinking of it if you or a small group of actresses and the way the industry is now sort of adult films being harder to make than they have been in a very long time with the industry steering itself towards superheroes more and more it is if it not just like you doesn't attach with them sometimes that film doesn't get made do you feel that importance of saying yes to a film there the ability to help us on get made at this point what if you don't make it somebody else will make it you know it'll be done but oh I get I I don't know I've I just think I think think you're very very lucky if you're employed and and it is a so much a question of luck it isn't a question of I've said this to so many young people it isn't a question of good actors are in work and bad actors are not in work I'm afraid it's not like that it's just if you're about the place and you're in the public eye and Yoram you know they're reminded then you may be lucky enough to get the next part but I mean I'm I constantly worry I just want to be employed I want to work what was that first and I don't want that word ret I you must be sick of that question I'm sick of it and I'm sick of being called a national treasure [Applause] obviously since your first role as a snail in a school play I'm glad you know about yeah I'll do my research robberies five five years old yeah did you have that did you catch the bug as it were well no no no no no no no I behaved rather badly I'm instead of crawling across the stage as a snail I stood up because I saw my parents I had mr. se get down Judas was soso when when was it when did you know that this was something you wanted to do where there are actresses that you idolize when you were young no I I am I only wanted to be a scenic designer stage designer so that's what I trained didn't finish my training but that's what I started to train as and then I saw King Lear at stratford-on-avon in the 50s and it was a incredible open set she's like an enormous kind of papadum the set looked and with a with a a rock in the middle that was the throne and the cave and everything he just turned so that no curtains had to come in it was just completely there accessible to you and all just went you know it just blew me away and I thought I'm never going to be a cut my designer like I would like to be I'm not I haven't got that imagination oh wait so I thought you were gonna say I I realized then I went outta the actors were so amazing it was not that it was there it was well the actors were amazing yes and so but my brother Jeffery I had only ever wanted to be an actor so I kind of got I caught it from him like you know measles or what I called it from him and that's what I that's then that was it yeah you talk about luck what was the first stroke of good luck my first that was getting into central school to train mm-hmm and then when I left we did a final show and I was cast as a philia in Hamlet at the Old Vic that was a pretty good stroke of luck six liked it much but I had a nice time I stayed there from 1957 to 61 mm-hm and that was and Shakespeare is my passion anyway and that's what I did all those years we just lost one of the greats Peter Hall you weren't with repeatedly yeah still fresh it was you know just about a week ten days ago founder of the world shake spear company and you had the pleasure of working with him I did a number of times lots of times ten times thank ya lucky we're gonna be talking about sort of teachers mentors and Victorian Abdulla what did you learn from Peter Hall oh I learnt how to obey the how to obey the verse because he when he was directing he used to stand as a lectern for the first for the first two I don't know quite a long time and he used to just simply look at the page said that you knew you know that you knew where the half lines were and you you know when when when the line is written then there's a half line and then sometimes the heart the next half line starts here you know that that is all one line if there's a half line and then a whole line you know that Shakespeare intends there is something there is a reaction of some kind at the end of the half law what he taught us all that and so it was it was it was so fortunate and I feel so lucky to have learnt it from Peter and from Trevor Nunn and John Barton coming up in the in the 60s in London so much was happening at that time I just found it you can you find on Amazon there's a the video there the film of the 1968 filming of Midsummer Night's Dream that you did with Peter Hall we have an incredible costume new tell us a little bit about I didn't have a costume at all well you hope that my costume was picked in the morning off a tree because it was a blue ivy leaves yes and I was sprayed green and they were stuck on me and that was it just green head-to-toe it's really something stranger your is a loss for us my family my daughter constant you I gave a film oh well I would even tell you what it is in case you might look it up but she's always saying I say we'll shoot pins Victor has anyone heard about these terrible murders in Whitechapel I said stop it I said there's something wrong with the sound of that film something wrong with the sound in that film it's an old clip but we ripped it from the Internet oh yeah do you remember what was like that's a lot of pressure your first film improvising on screen hmm and then working out your what was that a terrifying experience it was it was it was quite frightening well we improvised it and then he he kind of met he he wrote the script from our improvisation in a way but he didn't matter if he went slightly off the script which was which was glorious when we came to do it you know there's normal rod where you such a good actor and we filmed it in in a place in London in Putney where it was next to a bridge a road bridge it was also next to a railway and it was next and the planes came over here and it was next to the place on the river where they used to a boat used to come up and all the waste true to go over like that and Joe Melia was in the film as well in every chat we couldn't do a take of more than two minutes we couldn't and every time one of it one of you know every time we were interrupted Joe Melia sang wagon wheels so vivid I feel like that might not be a bad way to start a film after that must have seen but kind of easy really compared to that we're different different right what was them you know what experience do you think you you meet you remember the most of that or there's early cluster of films and plays that you did are there things lessons you learned in those moments that you that echo back now when you're working yes I think all the time I mean I didn't I didn't make many films because I didn't that wasn't my back really because I went up for a film Watson and the director said to me he said I'm very sorry we're not we're not going to cast you as I'm afraid he said you have everything wrong with your face if you will not not make films so I thought oh well no you don't have to go are because I was quite pleased I thought I'll go but straight back to the old vehicle you know I know more about being on stage and I know about anything else and I and it was only after I did a film called mrs. Brown which is 20 years ago um it's about Queen Victoria and her relationship with John Brown it was only after that which was made in 30 days for television but in actual fact Harvey Weinstein saw it and he said this this will be that's the only reason my career in films changed it's so interesting because I do think that we think of certain actors as being inevitable right the only we only we know there's success now and we imagine it must have been a straight line sometimes and it never is right would you do you imagine what your career would have been like if that film would I would have had it career yeah and I would have gone on hopefully in the theater but I have mostly done the theater I think I don't know I don't know how many things I've done which I which mostly for theater and despite the sexist success of film you haven't stopped it a lot of people once things start clicking the dial back but you can you continue to return to the theatre does it give you something different still than in then acting in a film the theater him oh absolutely everything it gives me everything because if we do it tonight when we get it wrong we'll have another go tomorrow and I can get it right maybe if we're lucky if we're lucky because it's the audience that makes it different this if we were to do a play now in front of this audience it would be one thing and then we would do it tomorrow and it could be completely different it's entirely a thing between us and you it's a bit of exchange of things it's how you react and it's how it's how that reaction makes you feel and how much of the story were telling and we and if it's not right then we have another go but now you know I can't I can't do anything now about a film it's just there and it'll never change until they find some wonderful we're being zapping it suddenly you can do the CGI now is moving along you could pretty soon you can play anything you anybody you know ape man woman De Niro's de-aging himself do you ever think about CGI and what you could do with a bunch of dots on your face I've done a bit of that yeah except what do you have those blue look and I guess now you have to use a little bit less than you used to it yeah I think I have done that yeah don't ask me what kind of I'm curious when you talked about this person telling you that you don't have the right face for film right I read another interview with you where you're talking about how your whole career had been attempt to keep from being pigeon-holed and and that seems to me someone telling you early on you can't do this you must govern it's just that I think I think that often you're seen in something and it reminds buttrum - somebody of something so they think oh yes and then you know what I dread now is getting apart like Queen Victoria because I get won't you do that right now I want I want to I want to play a person who rides a unicycle and you know I don't know whose game were to climb up the side of a building you know I I don't want to play anybody in a court again being haughty and rude to people I didn't want to do that now right dumb that what is your relationship to the royalty in general right now I mean you feel that because you've been sort of one of the people reinterpreting really but revising this history that you have a different kind of responsibility were you interested in royalty before this these few films not particularly I think they do a fantastic job and they didn't ask to do it and I think it must be you know at the very beginning of Victoria and Abdul as a moment we're saying responsibly he's telling her what she's going to do that day or the next day no wonder she doesn't talk they weren't thinking that we get you know because every day is mapped out for you every day is a responsibility to all the people that you're going to meet to all the people ritual going to engage with you know no wonder she met that young man and you know had a really nice time right [Laughter] can't blame her you can't blame her when you actually why don't we talk a little bit about you got a new film you talked about that some tonight based on shravani boss's book Victoria now build a true story of the Queen's closest confidant this film directed by Stephen Frears is about the relationship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim who arrives fresh from India to present her with a coin is the Royal Jubilee in 1887 and then becomes her teacher spiritual advisor and good friend we have a clip here we'll give you a little taste of the film talk more about our whole career and everything as well but this clip is of her co-star Ali Fazal am i pronouncing that right Anna Fuzzle puzzle I've been saying for zal until about three days ago when he's good acting it's puzzle as you know this story this relationship is fascinating me I didn't realize that it had been hidden force on basically the her Sunbury destroys all records of this relationship talk a little bit about how that history was recovered and and how this gives us because Bertie did did destroy everything that he found and then Shivani went to India and this was published in 2010 when they found a trunk containing some some letters and diary entries and things like that and and because they were in all do they were thought not you know they they hadn't been recognized syczyk were and so that's how they found out about about the whole relationship it's extraordinary they would sometimes we're making five dentures a day and that's not he wasn't away he's just down the corridor he was probably someday is the easiest way to converse with him since there was it was such a controversial matter within within the well they thought oh hello this is all John Brown all over again all going to get you know holy choice' behavior from her she's all going to be telling us to go she won't let us look at the boxes in the morning she's going to be and it's exactly what they did get that means she you know she's gonna be in her eighties when she hadn't got much to look forward to suddenly found this wonderful young man who she could talk to who could teach her and who they could laugh and be at ease and and relax and everything together and she could tell the others just to you know sorry she's sorry but you're not gonna do what he's gonna help me he's the secretary now he's you know he this is them they they were furious with her absolutely furious and she also took him to stay at the cottage in Scotland that she'd taken John Brown and she said dazzled she'll she said we'll go off there alone sorry none of Utica they were you know couldn't be controlled they were so angry yeah making this film right now given the kind of intolerance we're seeing of all sorts they feel particularly timely for you I do think it's timely I do think it's very timely and they're there is okay I think it would have mattered what nationality he was I think she she was fascinated by the the actual strangeness and the believing the the foreignness of him and but they were able to talk I mean what a great lesson that you you know you talk and find out about summer day don't look at the differences straightaway the differences may not even be there talk first and then you'll find out where you meet instead of way you divide and I think that's all the time right now she ascended with 18 years old 63 years on the throne and then suddenly is learning or do studying the Quran yes it's an extraordinary transition what do you think is about her that was that made her so curious at that time in her life I don't know yeah I think I suppose she was incredibly bored at bay at that time she she done a lot of rain and her responsibilities were enormous she was in her 80s she was losing all her friends they were all dying and and this young man came into her life at a time when she needed friendship and she needed a stimulus of some kind and she was very curious and also very clever spoke lots of languages do and and that was awakened in her again it's socially she's surrounded by formal advisers of all sorts but there's something about him that it opens her up in a different way they don't just talk about the Quran and earlier they talk about life yet they do talk about it live and he is a spiritual teacher to her won't you something I thought of just saying I don't know what it was I was gonna say no well I was gonna ask you if you've had a Munchie of your own do you do other people you look to you consider what love there's lots of people I mean Peter Hall was one of them yeah lots of not just in terms of the art in terms of life in Kim for all of us what do you get you get it from all your friends thank you I think we I like to learn something new all the time if I can some kind this is this is I learned a word in the summer which is natural death or phobia now does anybody here know what natural death or phobia you shout out if you do but it's the irrational fear of being stared at by a duck [Laughter] [Applause] now how we got by without no and we're here to college so I'm glad you are you good like you to guess like I think we below low yeah I hear you do a word-a-day this part of our routine I didn't do it where to dad trying to like I try to do something new a day um if I kept you know I what it keeps you going doesn't it keeps you and it keeps you on your toes a bit do you find that people underestimate you sometimes now underestimate me in what way but um as you're getting older do you think that people sometimes don't give you the respect maybe that you deserve respect oh yeah I didn't care about that yeah well you once said that you looked for roles where you could walk a tightrope and then turn into a dragon and I think of this seems very much well I look you know I look I buy what I don't want now is to play another queen and I don't want to play anyone imperious and I don't want it you know I don't want to say anyone with that kind of white hedgehog on my head I wanted a really daft partner other way you know I don't want to do all that again yeah you wanna play someone as terrifying as your character of notes on a scandal again oh oh no I love I love I read the book and I I loved it we had a real ball and we had we had a terrible fight in it Kate and I had to have a terrible fight and it was kept to last and they gave me a kind of thing like a turtle shell on my back because she had to smash me against the bookcase and we did it one day and when we came off she had a bottle of champagne in the wings this is to celebrate we've done it but we have like we had a we had a ball doing it yeah movie - dad - put it was that um that's not an opportunity that's come come through a lot for you someone that that is that powerful and strange and in some ways malicious do you wish you get to play some yes oh yes many more like that you know many more I was thinking I don't like the way that people think oh that person plays that kind of part that's not what we're about I don't think yeah I was thinking that one of the differences between sort of male actors Koreans and women is that the the guys get to play a lot of more bad guys more terrible thoughts for them to know they're women yeah when you when you watch your peers that you came up with and see the kind of the male peers and you see the kind of careers they have and you see the kind of roles that have been open to you and other women how do you like how do you imagine what the part that what possibilities might have been there for you had you been male well I guess that's not the right way that's never good to me I just think lucky to be employed no really lucky to be employed lucky to have done so many players of Shakespeare lucky to have been at the old vacant at the Royal Shakespeare Company and then we you know I mean in 1958 we came to America with the Oh with the OVA for six months - we all flew to New York we had the day in New York and then we met it would you have been Penn Station or Grand Central we all got on a train and crossed America to San Francisco we were three days or the Train that's an experience that people don't have these days you know we stopped at places like Laramie and Green River I'll never forget it and then from there we went all about me all around and it was stick what was so good about it well I'd never it was right you know 1957 was right across the other side of the world I never thought I would travel like that I've been to Japan three times it was it's just and and also to get the opportunity of doing Shakespeare in other that in other places but know about him so well to you know know the plays it's thrilling and to get a chance to see them doing it to to return again and again to Shakespeare two different plays mean more to you at different times in your life no no but I know that now I remember seeing Gwen Franken Davis once say I know that now I could play I could play a lot of parts that I have played I could play them much better now in hindsight and now because I've had more experience I know I could you know everybody says to you as a as a tip really less is more the less you do the more powerful it is you couldn't convey and say when I played Ophelia I kind of tried everything to make her mad in that scene but I know now that I would have only needed to do one thing and that would have conveyed it in a much simpler clearer way without messing up you know messing all the deverson things so in hindsight you know you think oh and I'd like another go at that but it's too late can't do that anymore mmm-hmm we talked about mrs. Brown as being a turning point do you think there and getting into schools a training point you think there have been other turning points in your career when things might have gone sour or taken off I don't know I mean I I was casting cats and was about to open in it and in the original production and then I snapped my Achilles tendon and so I was out of it and then because I was playing to cats then I was playing the Gumby cat and Grizabella and Trevor Nana said to me it doesn't matter you'll be in plaster but you can play the gum big actually you can't clap ciao joke at it doesn't matter I couldn't do that tap dancing with those beetles cockroaches and things the Gumby cat so anyway but then we transferred from the rehearsal room to the New London theater and there were ramps to come up onto the stage and ten days before we opened I was on our first day on the set at the new London I started to come up the ramp and fell over into the audience and I can't do this clapped out no I'm completely clapped out I don't know so so that was it yeah you could have been doing that for a decade I didn't do it again I went to see it now look gosh I'm glad I'm not anymore [Applause] [Laughter] no because I didn't like it I liked it but I just thought oh I'd be exhausted by now I'm allergic to cats what's up oh I like a cat there's that line uh nobody understands what it's like to be queen what do you what do you think you learn from this room that you didn't understand about her before mm-hmm the drudgery of it maybe knowing that in you know that that date is what I was you know that day-to-day responsibility of people expecting you to behave in a certain way expecting you to do everything you know that you know they don't ask to do that they're born into it it must be ghastly yeah we are we're gonna have some time to take some questions so I think we're gonna set up some microphones at the end of these aisles two left on the right and we'll ask you to line up we won't be passing around a mic so well after you took those out and we've got some questions from our friends and watching online and I'll start with one from Lisa from Facebook Judy who says what part would you like to play that you haven't yet oh I have no idea somebody should write one right away where's this person about the person to walk the tightrope turning into a beak oh yeah and we have Maria who asks what's been your favorite role to play do you have one favorite is their favorite child no I get no I don't have a favorite role that I played yeah they're least favorites one you hated yes Portia in the Merchant of Venice what I don't like the play very very very bad really badly after giving giving a very hard time then they you know they I think it's an awful play I shouldn't have done it and my husband we had just my husband and I had just been married and he bled Bassanio and this is absolutely true story Portia says to him when he's choosing the caskets I speak too long but his two peas the time to eat a time to draw it out in length to stay you from election and I said I speak too long but just appease the time to eke it and draw it out in length to steal from erection [Laughter] and the Royal Shakespeare wind band caught on the stage simply put down there their instruments like that and they just walked off and then I was left having to face Michael and Michael had a very long speech I it was hideous and we got reported that's the only thing I liked about The Merchant of Venice that glorious evening when he was all went so wrong way about one more from online Deborah asks what word best describes your life to date yeah and we'll start with a question from over here please it's really my name is Laura and Dame Judi you just make me so happy I thank you for your body of work I came with two books that I love that I'd like to give to you one is called an anthology of books of poems about loss called the art of losing edited by a wonderful poet named Kevin Young and another is the collection of shim borsky the polish no but Nobel laureate and I think you would enjoy them both and I just I thank you for your whole body of work it means so much thank you I will say that was really lovely and I love Kevin Young he was a great poet but if we can we were going to try to get in as many questions as we can so try to keep to questions if we can please sir you ever hear you played Ophelia Gertrude and Hecuba you played Victoria Elizabeth Victoria you've worked with Gielgud Branagh and Vin Diesel as the BAFTA most promising newcomer to leading film roles in 1966 do you have a perspective on actors and their friends and collaborators aging through roles and a lifetime do you have a perspective different perspectives in the community of actors and creative people age through a lifetime how about an aging through roles there are certain roles that you can no longer play that you might have played with people when you were 20 in their 20s and didn't get the chance you mean perhaps not perhaps not I mean Charles Evans has been a friend of yours for a long time how long did it take for you to get to work on film with him maybe I'll rephrase okay if you don't mind I'll tweak it a little bit so as a question I think that's really interesting I mean you know if we talk about how your careers changed and there are roles that you know your window moves yeah unless unless we do CGI you in different ways right their roles that you missed out on I'm playing probably you know the young love interest the the young heroine are there get more young love interests than that I don't know I get night I've never felt I've always been oh I'm very open to the the a new and something that I have to learn in a new you know in a new in a new way but I've never actually I suppose there are parts that I thought oh I didn't actually think there are parts that I thought oh I wish I played that or oh you know is that the answer to your question am i honest there's no way that you would just drive yourself crazy if you thought of all of you could've done and didn't I mean I'm I think is I think that way you could go mad and but you just have to hope that maybe maybe tomorrow I shall be asked to do something that I haven't done and and you know do a question from over here please yes I just want to bring it back to India for a second I'm a big fan of the Exotic Marigold Hotel series and one of the great scenes is everybody arriving in India for the first time the reactions being in the tuk tuks everything else it wasn't anybody in the gangs first trip to India any first impressions or any funny stories well was it anyone's first time to India and that he asked and was anyone particularly maybe out of their element or it was everybody's first time in India oh you Brits Beryl and it it was phenomenal absolutely phenomenal and then we had eight weeks on during the first one then we were asked to go back and do eight more weeks during the second one and I couldn't wait to go we had the most glorious time I think it my daughter said to me oh you found your spiritual home she said to me and in a way I feel I have I just many many things you have to come to terms with there of course there is even well you know this better than I can tell you great incredible poverty and incredible wealth but they are the most beautiful people that as a country we nice still am in touch with many people we met there and I hope to go back some time but it facilitated the film and everybody worked you know so hard and and we just never came up against people's engineer you can't do this you can't do it oh no you can't get the you know it was all very very inclusive and made our job easy glorious hope we do another I think we won't because Maggie's died now I'll say well I don't think we will I think you won many stages and it annoys me that you say you're so grateful to be employed you're so happy when the next job is coming forth now that you've reached the senior stages of your profession have you ever thought I'm going to create the work and do the hiring you ever thought of being the boss you mean direct whether it is missing or directing or creating be in a position where you're hiring the next no that's not quite my scene I can't Lee no but I have directed I've directed Ken Branagh twice to LACMA but you know I don't I I then suddenly found it I didn't like I don't like being in that position I don't like being in the position of telling people what to do or having the vision to do to play a certain way I just don't like it and I know I suddenly about the actors kind of gang up against you and I'll juror so they all go to a pub and won't tell you where they've gone and then then when I did much ado they all went out on tour and I went to see it quite secretly to see what they were up to and then afterwards I sent a message on saying I'm going to come and give you a few notes well I can only tell you that Ken Brown are left in his costume next question over here please uh two related questions first of all with today's counter casting if there were a male role that you could play that you would love to try I'd like to know about that and the other thing is I'd love to know about your process how do you prepare to do a role on stage and how it's different for film there are lots of there are lots of parts in Shakespeare for instance many thought that I would I just adore what they say and the language they have but I don't want to play them I just don't fancy it I don't know I just don't want about I get the process is well for a for a play you have a rehearsal time and you you have you may have four weeks or you may have five weeks I've had six weeks some things I say you rehearse and you learn the part and you go and you do a certain amount of work at home because otherwise you're wasting other actors time by asking questions and things that you could actually have solved yourself at home so you go and you rehearse together and then you do the play whereas in film Steven doesn't rehearse people don't race in a film you have to know it and you have to go and they say this is this is this is the room you're going to or something like no rehearsal people are amazed about it but there aren't there isn't any rehearsal and so it's up to you to prepare that inside so you've got all the thought processes and people say isn't it difficult to learn a part it isn't it isn't it is difficult to learn about it's much more difficult to learn why you say that line what it is that may that somebody said to you or perhaps not said you whatever that makes you say that line in the first place that's what's difficult first on this side please yes first of all I want to say how much I thank you for so many hours of enjoyment that you've given me both in films and on TV I saw your latest film two days ago loved it and I still watch as time goes by that's the most difficult job situation comedy is the most difficult thing I've ever done what because you you read you read it you you read it on a Tuesday morning by Tuesday afternoon you've set it you rehearse witnessed it and you know it Thursday Friday Saturday and on Sunday you have a whole audience like you and and I'm standing in the wings and they introduce you and every single episode I used to stand there wing say how have I got myself into this position you say hello hello and then you go and do a scene a comedy did you do for the first time in front of an audience and a camera you're very lucky of you if you work with somebody like Geoffrey Palmer does Geoffrey Palmer has got it too - he really you're in very safe hands with him but you know you you you are testing your comedic skills straightaway they haven't got a home they haven't got to date you do it in an evening and therefore you know you could do it seen a couple of times but then I remember once I had to pick up a drink from a table and walk over to another table I think pick up a drink from a bar and walk over to another table and put it down and talk now for some unknown reason and these drinks were not in bottles they were in you know they were like a loggers in for some unknown reason I picked two loggers up you can't do that you've got in one hand you can't do it and so they said stop the tape stop the tape just take the one cream so then I took the one drink and after I put it down the audience went ballistic and they completely they cheered and they done but of course of the thing we have to do it all over again the audience at home will wonder why this simple move taking into their get sitting normos because of the idiot actors folks I wish we could take all the questions we're gonna have time for two more from each side I'm sorry I've been trying to get as many in as we can so next question over here please hi you talk about luck I was lucky enough to see your Desiree Armfeldt in a Little Night Music at the VA four times and each time I saw it you made different choices found different colors every single time I just if you would talk a little bit about your experience working with Sondheim and on that production it was it was like a master class in musical theater acting well it's it's the it's the choice you make you know I can't talk about it much it's just it's the word mmm it's the gloriousness of playing something night after night after night so then you might get some of you comes round you might say something about it and gives you you suddenly think oh I've missed out on that of course I should you know so you you get you get its the glorious fact did you get it you have a choice in the theater you have a choice in in just doing something slightly different the next night all the way Larry guitar played Frederick Eggman and the way that Larry said something will be slightly different one night therefore you units like it's like a light you you ever say slightly change all the time and hopefully it gets better hopefully sometimes not when we did Antony and Cleopatra with Peter Hall at the National after we'd run we did a hundred performances of it and after we'd run some time he came and said I'd kill you he said something it's got a bit barak so I I don't know quite well when it was just before I did much directed much ado and I went back to see a performance of much much ado and I suddenly in a flash looking at it thought I know exactly what Peter meant it's when you leave actors alone to get on with the play they start adding little tiny little bit so unit gets a bit kind of and you think no no no I didn't ask you did you know so so it has advantages but it's just a question of react reacting to what the other person is saying and therefore you suddenly think oh yes of course that's what that means and that can strike you a very very long time afterwards as I said we did a hundred performances of Antony Cleopatra and I knew that on one line Cleopatra should get a laugh I knew that it was a laugh line that she should get and I and I didn't get it until the hundredth performance and that night the laugh and I thought well at least we got that [Laughter] question over here thank you you just spoke a little bit about comedy do you have any opinion on Tracey Ullman's portrayal of you in her sketch show and since you said you'd rather not play more serious roles getting to do more comedy or and perhaps that kind of comedy well I've done an enormous amount of God look I I think Tracey Ullman is a genius I think she's a genius and she's got me in quite a lot of trouble already I do carry a big bag a lot of the time on my shoulder I went to my local farm shop and I was just looking at something and this man said to me watch it [Laughter] thank you questions from over here please miss Dench thank you for your time this evening and I think I speak for everybody here and wishing you well in your future endeavors I often ask people what they strive for in life and what they desire and it really boils down to three things being fame money and travels as somebody who in my uneducated opinion I see that you satisfy all three of those at this stage in your life having accomplished so much what are the goals and what are the things you strive for for the remainder of your life yeah what do you strive for I just work [Laughter] and and learning those natty devil phobia don't forget it can you say can you say the word again just so we all natural dental phobia no ever everyone together and what he's eaten one two three question over here please and this will be our last question thank you all so much hi my name is Rachel and you'll correct me if I'm wrong but I was a drama student in Manchester from 1970 to 71 and I saw you in the Royal Shakespeare Company Twelfth Night I believe viola at that time it became amused and I actually used that as an audition piece for central I want to know from you you said you don't have a favourite role favorite role or particularly a favorite female role but everybody has some kind of muse so I'd like to know from you what serves as your muse or who serves you as amuse both in real life and in terms of the roles that you've played what energizes you well what energizes you and what serves as your muse and services your muse is if you're having a bad day is there something you look for is there some place you go new a better day lot of people a lot of people were inspirations to me and I suppose that's where they were muses I mean I was fortunate enough as Logan said to work with John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft and they were fantastic and they were they they told me a lot of things but I mean I have so many so many people that I you know that I own Oh entirely my career too because of inspiration in certain you know at a time when I probably was feeling a bit down or need really needed it they gave me the encouragement and and and and I'm wanting to go on and wanting to learn her something more and characters that you played any characters that served tense of news and characters that you played people that you know that you played yes well I I had to play Iris Murdoch and she hadn't long died I found that unbelievably difficult because there were many many people who knew her and the responsibility it's all right Elizabeth the first and Queen Victoria they're all you know they're quite a way back nobody here knew them but many many people knew Iris Murdoch and and it the responsibilities of that was was really tremendous and I also did a film with Stephen Frears called Philomena and that was about that was about a lady from Philomena Lee who I met and once you've met the person you know you have a huge responsibility to them and especially if they're still alive but but it was an incredible asset meeting her because she has with all that extraordinary life she had she has the most fantastic sense of humor and I wouldn't have if I hadn't met her I wouldn't have known that nor would I have played her with one I wouldn't have known to do that but but having met her you know that was like somebody just opening a wonderful door just for you to walk through thank you and speaking of great sense of humor this has been a blast thank you so much [Applause] you

Channel: New York Times Events

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Id: 4amGtNSCX48

Length: 60min 41sec (3641 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2017