Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? by Judi Dench review – whatever you do, don’t call her a ‘national treasure’ — SkimNews
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- Judi Dench was 23 and preparing to debut as Ophelia at the Old Vic when a Hollywood producer said she would never make a movie because “every single thing wrong” with her face; she left relieved and resolved to focus on theatre.
- Judi Dench became a bona fide film star in the 1990s through M in the Bond films and an Oscar-winning portrayal of Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, yet says she feels safest onstage and does not consider herself a film actor.
- Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? is a thematic question-and-answer memoir built from Dench’s conversations with Brendan O’Hea, her friend and collaborator on 2023’s Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent; it begins with her York childhood and oddly ends with “Starting Out,” covering what she did after her A-levels.
- Judi Dench, now 91 with poor eyesight but pin-sharp memories, says she has no intention of stopping work; the book’s title comes from nerves that keep her bag by the rehearsal-room door in case she runs.
- Judi Dench swapped cider vinegar for the drinks served by Mother Courage at London’s Barbican, enjoying the soldiers’ reaction so much that they had to request top-ups.
- Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? includes comic personal details such as a waste-collection truck named “Dame Foodie Dench” and a cat called “Bernard the Duck Fucker,” sustaining its anecdotal momentum.
- Frances Barber gave Dench a double-ended, bendy dildo at the opening night of Madame de Sade, which Dench wore as a scarf when the company gathered for director’s notes.
Why it matters: At 91, Dench is still working, so her memoir’s rejection of the “dusty old relic” label revises the national-treasure frame: theatre, nerves and continued practice replace celebrity as the focus. The result presents her career as an active craft built around the story, not appearances, which is the identity she says she values.
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