The actor who said Judi Dench “should be ashamed of herself”
The concept of holding a grudge against Judi Dench sounds nonsensical, which explains why the few who do have typically approached it with a sense of awe, jealousy, or a combination of both.
Late legends Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith went viral when Tea with the Dames found them infuriated by their position on a rung below their long-time friend on the hierarchical ladder, with the former remarking how she dreamed of a “nice little cameo that Judi Dench hasn’t gotten her paws on.”
The only actor who actively despises being compared to the awards-laden legend is her daughter, Finty, which makes perfect sense when those are daunting shoes that she never wanted to try and step into anyway, but since her old dear is an icon, it’s a burden she’s been forced to carry nonetheless.
Lesley Manville’s issues with Dench are admittedly different, since she copped to pissing herself on stage when the mischievous veteran made her break on stage by standing in the wings pretending that she was being “pleasured from behind,” but just because she’s a national treasure, it didn’t make her any easier to forgive for such an embarrassing incident.
The point is that nobody dislikes Judi Dench, and why would they? She’s one of the United Kingdom’s greatest-ever actors, she filled her trophy cabinet with accolades gathered from six decades of stage and screen excellence, and when so many thespians can be a precious bunch, she’d rather craft foul-mouthed embroidery than speak of “the craft” through steepled fingers.
The James Bond alum also continued knocking out acclaimed performances into her late 80s, averaged over two feature-length outings a year from 1999 to 2022, and still found the time to star in eight TV shows and ten plays during the same time period. She was booked and busy, which is what irritated Judy Parfitt.
She’s a year younger than Dench, but they started their careers around the same time in the early 1960s. Whereas the former became a Hollywood mainstay three decades later and worked with some of the most respected directors in the business in major productions, Parfitt remained local, although she was a regular fixture on the big and small screen until the mid-2010s.
Reflecting on the realities of being an older actor in the current climate, Parfitt couldn’t help but throw in a good-natured jab, once that’s been echoed by several contemporaries of the same generation, but always through a positive lens: “Judi Dench should be ashamed of herself for being so talented and working so much,” she said.
Sadly, those days may be over, with Dench’s issues with her eyesight meaning she hasn’t played an acting role since Richard Eyre’s 2022 drama, Allelujah, but she’s had a hell of a run.
