Daniel Day-Lewis’ 20-year apology for abandoning Judi Dench: “I promise not to run out on you this time”
Among the many great films in Daniel Day Lewis’ filmography, there are also some flops; not every project will hit the ground running, and in the case of Lewis’ 2009 film Nine, it was not an immediate success. The film is loosely based on the great Federico Fellini’s 8½, following a director as he deals with a mid-life crisis, struggling between unfinished projects and the vying attention of the many women in his life. The movie also reunited Day-Lewis with Dame Judie Dench, who hadn’t worked together since one disastrous project in 1989.
There have been many cursed collaborative duos over the years; however, the pairing of Dench and Day-Lewis might be the most unlikely of all. What could possibly go wrong by pairing two of Britain’s most iconic actors together?
After the 1989 production of Hamlet at the National Theatre in London, audiences were surprised by one decision that the cast or audience did not appreciate. Day-Lewis played Hamlet in the play, with Dench playing his mother, and during the final show, Day-Lewis walked off the stage in the middle of the performance and didn’t return, much to the dismay of his fellow actors who were left alone in the wake of his departure.
Day-Lewis has not revealed why he abandoned this particular performance but simply refers to it as his ‘unscheduled departure’. Imaginably, this is not something that Dench remembers fondly, as the experience resembles the kind of nightmare dream scenario that would keep any actor awake at night. When Day-Lewis was later asked about the production, he said, “Well, I had a lot of happy moments. But I suppose people who have spoken on my behalf about that experience, as many people have done, tend to have dwelt upon other aspects of it.”
However, despite the trauma of this particular play, Dench and Day-Lewis later reunited for Nine, with Dench playing the character of Lilli in this modern musical adaptation of the great Italian classic. But Day-Lewis attempted to repair their trust and put Dench’s mind at ease before they began shooting, saying, “I did send Judi a note when we started working on Nine saying ‘I promise not to run out on you this time’”.
While Day-Lewis did not make any “unscheduled departures” from Nine, the film was by no means a success, and it was met poorly by critics despite the praise given to the lead cast members. Miraculously, it still received a few Academy Award nominations, no doubt due to the impressive ensemble cast, which also stars Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren.
The film bombed at the box office, though, with a budget of $80million and only earning $54m. Despite the collective success and legacy of Dench and Day-Lewis, their combined star quality was not enough to resurrect this particular project, going down as another flop in their work as a duo.
To this day, the 1989 production of Hamlet remains Day-Lewis’ final theatre performance.
