Judi Dench, 87, is an English actress who gained notoriety by starring in the James Bond franchise in the 1990s.
She also played Queen Victoria twice, in Mrs. Brown in 1997 and Victoria and Abdul in 2017. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she is the only actor who has played the same queen in two different films.
She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film Shakespeare in Love in 1998. She was also nominated for eight other Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Mrs. Brown.
Recently, Dench has taken her talents to TikTok, where she shares videos with her grandson, Sam Williams, 25.
Per Vanity Fair, Dench first went viral on TikTok in 2020 during the pandemic. Sam revealed he encouraged his grandmother to post on the app, but she was “quite hesitant at first.”
Dench joked that she was only hesitant because Sam’s behind-the-scenes directing was “Strict! Very strict. I’d say, ‘We’ll do it now,’ and he’d say, ‘No, you can’t do it now you’re not good enough. Do it again, do it again, do it again!’”
Although she had to work hard to get the video just right, she expressed TikTok helped her get through the pandemic.
“TikTok saved my life,” she said. “Every day is so uncharted. “You wake up, and you wonder what day it is, and you wonder what date it is, and sometimes what month. And then you think, ‘What do I do today?’ And if the prospect is, ‘Well, what is there to do today?’”
Dench has one child, daughter Finty Williams, with her late husband, Michael Williams.
Unfortunately, Michael passed away in 2001 at the age of 65 from lung cancer. Per Hello Magazine, Dench opened up about losing her husband in a podcast episode of David Tennant Does a Podcast.
The host, David Tennant, asked Dench how long it took her to get used to life without Michael. She replied, “I don’t know. I don’t know. Perhaps I’ve never done that, quite… I suspect I shall never ever get over Mikey.”
Dench did find love again in partner David Mills. Hello Magazine reported that the two started their relationship ten years after Michael passed.
“I wasn’t even prepared to be ready for it. It was very, very gradual and grown up … It’s just wonderful,” Dench expressed.
Dench recently starred in the movie drama Allelujah in 2022 and Belfast in 2021. She also starred in the comedy series Blithe Spirit which was released in January 2021.
References
https://oscars.fandom.com/wiki/Judi_Dench
https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/20211019124311/judi-dench-throwback-to-early-career/
