“Naked, sweaty-faced, and smoking”: Judi Dench’s favourite scene from her greatest role
Everyone has their own favourite Judi Dench performance, which is only natural when there are so many to choose from, but there’s only one Judi Dench performance that’s the personal favourite of the dame herself.
Having amassed almost 200 credits across film, television, and theatre dating back to the early 1960s, it’s not as if she’s short of options. Dench has been knocking out powerhouse turns for over 60 years, and in that time, she’s scooped up almost every major award going for her efforts.
You’d think it might be difficult for someone with an Academy Award, ten Baftas, two Golden Globes, seven Olivier Awards, and a Tony to settle on one character who made a bigger impression than any of the others she’s played, but Dench has no qualms over singling out one as her performative pinnacle.
Part of the reason why it takes the top spot is that, onscreen at least, it was so against type. Even though she hates being called a national treasure, that’s precisely what she is, and the veteran has become such a beloved presence that nobody bothers asking her if she wants to break bad and play a villain.
When she did, Dench was delighted with herself, and rightly so. Adding another Oscar nomination to the collection, Richard Eyre’s 2006 psychological drama, Notes on a Scandal, cast her as Barbara Covett, a teacher who manipulates and exploits her colleague after catching wind of their affair with a student.
The star described the chance to sink her teeth into a despicable antagonist as “absolute bliss,” and readily celebrates it as the high point of her acting career. It’s an opportunity she’s rarely afforded, and Dench made the most of it, even if it didn’t open the door to her becoming a go-to baddie, which is a bit of a shame, really, because she was fucking spectacular at it.
As for the standout sequence from the film, her long-time friend and frequent collaborator spilt the beans. “Her favourite scene was the one when she’s lying in the bath, naked, sweaty-faced and smoking,” Eyre told the BFI. It wasn’t very dame-like, to the extent that the filmmaker was called out for it by a Hollywood icon.
“At the New York premiere, I was accosted by Lauren Bacall, who shouted, ‘Richard! How dare you humiliate Judi by making her do that scene!” he recalled. “Lauren couldn’t quite conceive that a star would allow herself to look like that. But Judi loved it. It’s funny that she has this demure, cosy reputation. I mean, nobody loves a dirty joke more than Judi.”
That’s true, and there’s plenty of evidence to back it up, with Dench as mischievous as she is formidable. Bacall couldn’t comprehend why she’d let herself be filmed like that, but for James Bond’s deposed M, it was the icing on the cake of the best movie she’s ever been a part of.
