Judi Dench wants to play an Afghan woman who walks a tightrope and turns into a dragon
Dame Judi Dench wants to play a role that’s just that little bit different, you know?
With a hugely impressive career that’s spanned over six decades, Judi Dench has pretty much done it all.
From taking to the stage as a traditional Shakespearean thespian, to playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, to donning the role as the super-slick (and sarcastic) M in the James Bond franchise, there’s basically no role the 83-year-old can’t play.
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However, there is one role that Dench is holding out for.
Speaking as she accepted Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution to film at the British Independent Film Awards last night, she explained. “I often ask my agent, ‘Where is the Afghan women [sic] who walks a tightrope and turns into a dragon," she told Metro.co.uk. "You want to do something different.”
Among the varied repertoire of characters Dench actually has played over the years, the actor has a soft spot for spinster teacher Barbara Covett – the character she played in the 2006 psychological-thriller Notes on a Scandal, where she starred opposite Cate Blanchett.
“I enjoyed Notes On A Scandal, I enjoyed it enormously, simply because it is very, very nice when you have done a few [of the same thing], the last thing you want to do a film of the same character again,” she explained to the Metro.
“We had a huge fight in it too, Cate Blanchett and I, I had to wear a sort of turtle shell under my costume for the swelling and then we had a glass of champagne.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AruRpjQquQQ
The film sees art teacher Sheba Hart (Blanchett) start an illicit affair with an underage student, something which Covett finds out and documents in her diary.
The role saw Dench nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for Best Actress.
Upon receiving the Richard Harris Award last night, a tearful Dench said she would keep it alongside the Oscar she received for Shakespeare in Love in 1998.