You cant come more full-circle than this.
In 1997, Judi Dench appeared in her first-ever leading role in a movie as Queen Victoria inMrs.
Brown.That role kicked off the most remarkable sexagenarian-and-beyond career in the history of movies.
Credit: Peter Mountain/Focus Features
The actress cannot deny it.
Ive got a bad reputation for giggling, she says.
I think I have, yes.
Peter Mountain/Focus Features
I mean, I can be a serious person, but I see humor in a great many things.
Ive always found quite difficult about keeping it straight.
Im a terrible laugher.
If anything goes ever so slightly wrong, my tendency is to laugh a great deal.
That quality of lightness was a key to unlocking Victoria.
Brown, Dench didnt take the role for vanity purposes.
However, she was conscious of one thing: showing her hand.
On her 81st birthday, the actress got a tattoo that says carpe diem on her right wrist.
Fortunately I wore long cuffs and bracelets the whole film, she says, letting out a sassy laugh.
And I made quite sure about that.
Well, it is true thatMrs.
Brownwas made for television, Dench tells EW.
And then came Harvey.
It was he who saw it and said, This is a movie.
Quite suddenly it kicked off a whole movie career for me.
I had done very few films before that.
But what about the tattoo?
She lets out a fantastic throaty giggle.
Well, well, yes that is a fact that only Harvey and I know, she says.
Youll have to trust Harvey about that.
