UNITED KINGDOM: DAME JUDI DENCH TALKS ABOUT HER LATEST FILM OF OSCAR WILDE'S "THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST" WITH COLIN FIRTH AND RUPERT EVERETT

Record ID: 392842

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: DAME JUDI DENCH TALKS ABOUT HER LATEST FILM OF OSCAR WILDE'S "THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST" WITH COLIN FIRTH AND RUPERT EVERETT
  • Date: 1st July 2002
  • Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUDI DENCH SAYING "I hope it is fun to watch. It was huge fun to do, but it's very precise work indeed, it's very, very precise. The language is, it's difficult to learn and it's difficult to play that part because Edith Evans you know is remembered almost entirely for it and so that's very difficult. Dif
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZWDWBIGQBP6XYEBQPXON5DVZ
  • Story Text: It's a part Irish playwright Oscar Wilde might have penned for Judi Dench - Lady Bracknell in his famous play 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. Now Oliver Parker transplants the stage play to the big screen, where Dench is joined by Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Frances O'Connor. As the film gets ready for its British opening, Dench is preparing to tread the boards once again, this time with Maggie Smith, in the premiere of David Hare's 'The Breath of Life'.
    It's true to say that Dame Judi Dench is a national treasure in the United Kingdom, but in recent years she's also been adopted as 'one of their own' Stateside.
    Largely the result of an on-going working relationship with Miramax and in particular its head, Harvey Weinstein, Dench has carved a successful career in films relatively late in her professional life.
    Her latest venture into the world of film is with 'The Importance of Being Earnest' directed by Oliver Parker. The film is Parker's delightful adaptation of Oscar Wilde's famous play of the same name.
    Dench who joined a stellar cast on the film which included Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Reece Witherspoon and Frances O'Connor explained why she was up for the part.
    'I haven't seen 'The Importance of Being Earnest' (the finished version) but I wanted to play Lady Bracknell again because I played it on the stage and I wanted to work with Oliver. And so that - it seemed to me - and they could fit in with my impossible dates at that time and with the impending strike which fortunately never happened and so it all worked together very well. And I'm very glad I did it.' The story is set in England at the end of the 19th Century where two young gentlemen search for more excitement in their lives. Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) invents a brother called Ernest and uses him as an excuse to escape his country home to head up to London to visit his beloved Gwendoline (Frances O'Connor). Everett plays Algernon Moncrieff another dandy leading a double life who claims nonexistent relatives and false identities all for the sake of pursuing Cecily Cardew (Reese Witherspoon).
    Dench reclaims the role of Lady Bracknell, the imperious, sharp-tongued snob who seeks to find only the best suitor for her daughter Gwendoline and when bachelor Worthing seeks Gwendoline's hand in marriage, Lady Bracknell makes life extremely difficult.
    Working with the males in the cast was a joy for Dench, especially the smouldering Colin Firth: 'Yes, he's absolutely beautiful, I quite agree." she said "Yes he is. Yes he is. He's heart-renderingly beautiful - and so is Rupert Everett. And I'm very fond of Tom Wilkinson so we had a very, very nice time - you can imagine. Yes he's absolutely beautiful Colin."
    Dench is now preparing herself for the opening of David Hare's play 'Breath of Life' where she joins Dame Maggie Smith on stage at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket in October this year.
    'The Importance of Being Earnest' is set for a September release in the UK.
    --
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