Pardon Judi Dench while she goes on a rant.
Reading “Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?” (out Nov. 3 from St. Martin’s Press) feels like sitting down for a winding conversation with the acclaimed British actress. Told Q&A style, fellow actor Brendan O’Hea asks Dench about everything from her stage and screen career to her serene garden.
While she offers heartfelt life reflections, Dench also has many quips – and cuss words – up her sleeve. At 91, the actress isn’t shy about her likes and dislikes. Here’s what she notably loathes:
Judi Dench attends the premiere of “Allelujah” during the BFI London Film Festival at Southbank Centre on Oct. 9, 2022, in London.
1. ‘Cats’ (2019)
When O’Hea tries his best to weave Andrew Lloyd Webber’s movie musical adaptation of “Cats” into a conversation, Dench is reluctant to talk about it: “The history of me and ‘Cats’ is terrible,” she responds.
But she eventually does. Dench says she was originally cast as Grizabella and the Gumbie Cat in the 1981 West End production, but snapped her Achilles tendon and couldn’t perform. Accepting the role of Old Deuteronomy in Webber’s 2019 adaptation was “unfinished business, perhaps,” but Dench knew from the beginning that she “didn’t feel right in the role.”
She didn’t like the “heavy and unwieldy” fur coat costume, and complains that the young dancers were “left hanging at the end of the take.” And though she liked working with Ian McKellen and getting a bouquet of roses from Jason Derulo, she calls the film “a waste of all that goodwill and talent.”
She never watched the finished produced. Despite a star-studded cast that also included Taylor Swift, the movie was universally panned, especially for its special effects and musical numbers. It currently holds a 19% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Dench scored a Razzie Award nomination for worst supporting actress.
2. Trigger warnings
Dench also has a lot to say about trigger warnings, which she feels takes away from audience enjoyment.
“I think it’s gone too far – it’s mollycoddling. If you’re that sensitive don’t go to the theatre. By all means keep the warnings about strobe lighting and gunshots, and obviously there should be age limits for children, but that’s about it. Otherwise where will it end?” Dench writes.
Trigger warnings are a cautionary note that a piece of media may contain scenes that are disturbing to viewers, like sexual or domestic violence or a mental health emergency.
“I want to be triggered, excited, stimulated, provoked and disturbed, to be taken out of my comfort zone,” Dench writes. “Isn’t that what makes theatre and films so thrilling? To experience the unexpected, to have your preconceptions challenged?”
3. Disney movies
Dench has been on Disney’s payroll, but don’t ask her to go see one of its animated movies in theaters. In her memoir, Dench tells O’Hea that she felt claustrophobic and got panic attacks in movie theaters as a kid. She blames Walt Disney himself for creating so many movies where mothers are killed or taken away from their children.
“I was absolutely hysterical when I saw ‘Dumbo’ – couldn’t stop crying. I must’ve been about 7 and they had to carry me out of the cinema,” Dench writes. “Even now, I wouldn’t want to see a Disney film. I certainly couldn’t sit through ‘Dumbo.’ If you said, ‘I’ll give you 10 pounds to go and watch “Dumbo,”‘ I wouldn’t be able to do it. It would upset me too much.”
And she certainly wouldn’t hear out O’Hea’s argument that Disney was a genius who teaches children about morality.
“Yes, I know, but why put it in a cartoon?! … No, Walt Disney ruined cinema for me,” she writes.
Brendan O’Hea and Judi Dench collaborated on “Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It” a 350-page chat about Dench’s life, interests and decades in the entertainment industry.
4. Being called a national treasure
Dench holds many honorifics – Dame, Oscar winner, Tony winner – but don’t call her a national treasure. “Loathe it. Makes me sound like a dusty old relic that’s been stuffed away in the back of the cupboard, along with some dinosaur fossils and a broken Roman shield,” Dench writes.
Dench doesn’t want to slow down, saying she wants to be “one of those women who throw themselves out of airplanes when they’re a hundred.” Though she has said her degenerative eye disease makes it hard for her to act or read scripts.
5. Directing
Dench has directed several stage productions, but learned she’s “not cut out for it.”
In fact, the “Skyfall” actor said she couldn’t think of any positives about the experience of directing other than bringing a group of people together. She’d much rather be in the action than in the chair.
“I couldn’t bear the loneliness of being a director,” she writes, continuing later: “And as for that first performance in front of an audience, where you have to sit and watch while an actor mistimes their lines, becomes inaudible, or allows their nerves to get the better of them. And there’s nothing you can do – you’re trapped there in the dark, scribbling notes on a pad and feeling the pen rip through the paper. Honestly, it’s like watching a group of children teeter along a cliff edge.”
Contributing: Brendan Morrow
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, covering buzzy releases, chatting with authors and diving into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judi Dench says Disney ‘ruined cinema’ for her and other things the acclaimed actress hates
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