The one thing Denzel Washington and Judi Dench have in common: “Why would you do it anyway?”
Outside of the obvious—namely, the fact they’re both legends and among the best of their generation—Denzel Washington and Judi Dench don’t have much in common.
That said, they both cut their teeth treading the boards before graduating to cinema and becoming entrenched as two of the most reliable, dependable, and talented names around. Even at that, though, they approached their beginnings in very different ways.
Dench attended drama school and made her debut onstage in 1957 at the iconic Old Vic, whereas Washington didn’t even grow up as a cinephile and admitted he was a lot more likely to rob somebody who’d just left a screening of the latest Stanley Kubrick movie than he was to pay for a ticket to see it himself.
That said, they quickly became synonymous with Shakespeare, and it was an association that spanned decades. The classically trained Dench was hailed as one of London’s brightest young talents throughout the 1960s, while it was a student performance of Othello that convinced Washington acting was where his future lay, which came full circle when he earned his tenth Academy Award nomination almost half a century later for playing the title character in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Those are more coincidences than having things in common, but there’s one shared bugbear that the Oscar-winning bedfellows share. Despite racking up well over a century of theatrical credits between them and attending countless premieres, Dench and Washington have made a point of never watching their films once the final day of principal photography is over.
“Guilty!” the Training Day star confessed when The Times told him that Dench refuses to watch her own work because it’s only going to leave her disappointed. “I watch it so I know what I’m talking about. But I haven’t watched any film from my past from start to finish, not even Malcolm X. All you see is what you did wrong. Also, why would you do it anyway?”
He’ll watch enough so that he doesn’t feel the need to bullshit his way through a press tour trying to pass comment and judgment on scenes he’s never seen, but that’s where Washington draws the line. Meanwhile, Dench’s extensive background in live theatre has been singled out as the primary reason why she can’t sanction sitting down to see what she’s done on set; she’s used to doing it once and leaving it in the hands of the audience, so why change the habit of a lifetime? Again, completely different reasons for doing so, but a shared mindset nonetheless.
At this stage, it’s hard to see them changing their ways. The downside is that if Washington and Dench were asked to name the best movie they’ve ever been a part of, they wouldn’t have a clue because they haven’t seen any of them from beginning to end.
