The one and only time Judi Dench played a villain: “It was absolute bliss”
Some actors aren’t cut out for playing villains because convincing an audience they could perform abhorrent acts stretches the suspension of disbelief too far. However, when Judi Dench broke bad for the first and only time onscreen, she excelled.
Of course, that’s probably to be expected, seeing as she’s one of the United Kingdom’s greatest-ever actors. The best performers can play any part, and that extends to a diminutive dame with a penchant for Shakespeare and foul-mouthed embroidery being asked to play a reprehensible character.
That said, buying Dench as a fearsome force of nature seems easier said than done. For one thing, she’s too damn beloved, so much so that the British Board of Film Classification repeatedly found itself inundated with complaints whenever she used profanity in a movie.
Beyond that, as Tom Hanks can attest, actors who are largely regarded as wholesome beacons of on and offscreen positivity are aware that the discerning audience member has a hard time taking them seriously as an absolute shitheel. Fortunately, Dench is one of the best in the business, and she knocked it out of the park.
Proving that she might have missed a trick by waiting 40 years to play a villain, Dench was recognised by the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Baftas in the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ category for her searing performance as Barbara Covett in Richard Eyre’s literary adaptation Notes on a Scandal.
Dench’s lonely and unpopular ageing teacher strikes up an instant bond with Cate Blanchett’s faculty newcomer, Sheba Hart, which quickly becomes an infatuation. Things take a dark turn when she discovers Sheba’s tryst with a teenage schoolboy, which she uses to manipulate, blackmail, and generally make life a misery for her colleague, personally and professionally.
“We had the most glorious time making that film,” Dench exclaimed to Vogue. “She was a real villain, my part, and it was bliss. It was absolute bliss. Oh, it was glorious playing a proper villain. And kind of dangerous and difficult and all those things which are best to be.”
Anyone who doubted Dench’s ability to play a shrewd, scheming, calculating, cunning, and altogether devious antagonist was forced to eat their words when Notes on a Scandal was released. She called it “bliss,” and it’s easy to see why: from watching her performance, it’s clear that the Oscar winner went all-in with the rare opportunity to deviate as far from type as possible.
The only downside is that it didn’t lead to more villains. There’s not much about her career you can look back on and say she missed a trick, but the tiny yet terrifying Barbara underlined that even a prized national treasure, who admittedly hates being called a national treasure, and a legendary acting institution like Dench was more than capable of putting her image to one side for some scene-stealing shithousery.
If there’s one thing missing from her filmography, and there isn’t much, it’s that she didn’t feel the need to see if lightning could strike twice and embrace her villainous side for a second time.
