- Title: Dench admits making movies frightens her, says wouldn't want to be a royal
- Date: 4th September 2017
- Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, STEPHEN FREARS, ASKED ABOUT QUEEN VICTORIA, SAYING: ''Well I mean I don't know anything about Queen Victoria, I am not like Daisy Goodwin (TV producer / novelist), but you discover this woman was really interesting and it was much more complex than history has told us.''
- Embargoed: 18th September 2017 15:24
- Keywords: Judi Dench Victoria & Abdul Venice Film Festival film making the Royal Family
- Location: VENICE, ITALY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: VENICE, ITALY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0096X6L7PP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Making movies gets more terrifying the older you get, British actress Judi Dench said on Monday (September 4), a day after her latest royal comedy drama "Victoria & Abdul" premiered at the Venice film festival.
Dench, who won an Oscar for her role in "Shakespeare in Love" and was nominated for Academy Awards six other times, said unlike in theatre, where you can adjust with each performance, in films you get only one chance.
"It's always challenging, I am always frightened, always frightened," the 82-year-old actress told Reuters in an interview. "I get more frightened the older I get.
Dench began her career in theatre, followed by numerous TV roles, but still recalls how during a film audition she was told she would never make a movie "because you have everything wrong with your face".
But the turning-point came in 1997 when she was cast as Queen Victoria in "Mrs Brown", the first time she played the late British monarch. She stepped back into the Queen's shoes for "Victoria & Abdul", which screened in the out-of-competition section in Venice.
While "Mrs Brown" explored Queen Victoria's relationship with her servant John Brown, Stephen Frears' new comedy drama is based on her subsequent unlikely friendship with Indian clerk Abdul Kazim who was sent to England to present her with a gold coin.
Kazim was only due to visit Britain briefly but Victoria took a shine to him and asked him to stay on and be her teacher. In the end Kazim served Victoria until the end of her reign.
Coming to London to shoot the film was the first time Indian actor Ali Fazal, who stars as Kazim, visited the British capital, and the first time he met Dench, "who is pretty much royalty amongst actors", the 30-year-old actor said.
"It was a sort of parallel, going along with the film: I like to think I gained a wonderful friend," he said.
Asked whether she would ever want to be royalty, Dench shook her head.
"No, certainly not, I can't think of anything worse," she said, although she added that the royal family was doing a "phenomenal job", especially given it was not something they had chosen, but "just the job you're born with".
Venice film festival ends on Sept. 9. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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