-Our first guest tonight is a Tony- and Academy Award-winning
actress you know from movies such as
"Shakespeare in Love," "Philomena,"
and the James Bond films.
She stars in critically acclaimed "Belfast,"
which is in select theaters and on demand now.
Let's take a look.
-It was a great wonder, pictures when I was your age.
I used to think you could climb right inside the screen
and visit all those strange places you saw.
Like that one in that film. What was that?
Uh, "Lost Horizons."
Did you ever see that? -No.
What was the name of the place, Granny?
-Shangri-La. That's what they called it.
-Did you ever go there?
-There were no roads to Shangri-La
from our part of Belfast.
-Please welcome to the show Dame Judi Dench, everyone!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you so much for being with us.
-Thank you, Seth. It's lovely to meet you.
-Now, it is very enjoyable for me
to introduce you as Dame Judi Dench.
I'm wondering, for you, personally,
do you enjoy that introduction?
Do you insist on being called this in conversations?
-[ Laughs ] No. No, I don't insist on it at all.
It's a curious thing to get used to when you're made a dame.
Because a dame here -- You know, a dame in America
is much different from what a dame is here.
-Yeah. So, this is a wonderful film that takes place in Belfast
during the troubles.
And I'm wondering, you, of course,
were living in the U.K. at the time.
How familiar were you with this era of Belfast
before doing the film?
-Well, very, very familiar, because my
mother and father both lived in Dublin.
And so I knew a great deal about Irish history.
And I was very much aware of this at the time.
We weren't in Ireland at that time.
We'd moved across to York, in England.
But we were very much aware of it.
And Ken has caught the kind of essence of it
so wonderfully, I think.
I hope he's pleased. I think he is.
But, you know, it reminded you of
that worrying and terrifying time.
-So, you mentioned Ken. That's Kenneth Branagh.
And this is a film he directed.
It's based loosely on his childhood.
And he directed you in this film.
You've actually directed him before onstage.
And I think I was reading you've worked together 12 times,
which is amazing.
It must be so wonderful to have a working relationship with
somebody as talented as he is.
-It is, indeed.
And we met a long, long time ago.
Behaving rather badly, I think, on television once,
and we were both sent out of the studio.
And that kind of sealed it straight away for us.
-What was your bad behavior
that got you sent out of the studio?
-Yes, I'm afraid we -- It was a very --
It was Ibsen's "Ghosts" we were doing.
People don't laugh much in "Ghosts."
But in this, I'm afraid, we fell apart.
For some reason, we completely fell apart and went to pieces.
So they said, "Mr. Branagh, Miss Dench,
you can leave the studio now, the two of you."
So we did, and it kind of made a bond between us.
For a very long time, it's made a bond.
-I imagine you are a wonderful person to direct.
How was Kenneth when you were on the other side?
Did you enjoy directing him as an actor?
-I loved it. I don't enjoy directing much.
Because, you know, a company of actors
kind of gang up against you when you're directing,
and they all go to the pub and don't tell you which pub
they're going to, you know, because they don't want notes.
After hours, they don't want notes and things.
And once when they were on tour --
It was "Much Ado About Nothing," and they were on tour,
and I went to give them notes, went down to see it.
And afterwards, he'd left in his costume, Ken,
so he never got the notes from me.
But it withstood that all these years I've known him.
And so we've worked together onstage
and he's directed films that I've been in
and I've directed two plays that he's been in,
and so it goes on.
Thank goodness. I hope it goes on.
He asks -- When he asked me about "Belfast,"
he said, "It's to play my grandmother."
I said, "I'm not nearly old enough
to play your grandmother."
But, of course, it was back in the '70s, and now I was.
-Right. Yeah, it was a flashback.
It works perfectly fine that way.
You have a grandson in real life,
one that you got to spend a fair amount of time
with over the last couple of years.
And it's quite lovely.
He -- Is it safe to say that he taught you about TikTok?
-He did.
He came down to where I live,
and during the beginning of the lockdown,
and he said, "I think we ought to do a bit of TikTok."
And I have no -- I'm absolutely hopeless at all those things.
I said, "I've no idea how."
He said, "Well, we'll do it. We'll rehearse it.
And then we'll -- You know, I'll put it out."
And so we did it.
And I said, "Shall we put it out?"
He said, "No, no, no, no, not now.
He said, "More rehearsal."
So we rehearsed again.
And I said, "How about that?"
He said, "No, no, not nearly" -- He was a tyrant.
And then, in the end, he said,
"Okay, okay, we'll do it.
We'll put it out now."
I've never seen the finished result, actually.
-I want to show you the finished result.
And my favorite part about it, especially hearing that story,
is how proud he is of you at the end.
I believe there's a bit of a fist pump.
Let's take a look.
-♪ Juice, sauce, little bit of dressing ♪
♪ Ice, wrist, little bit of flexing ♪
♪ Juice...♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Now, I'm very happy that you haven't seen these,
because your grandson, Sam, has also taken to doing
TikTok reviews of your films.
-Who? Me? -And we're gonna show two. Yes.
Now, we're going to start -- This is a -- They're very fast.
-You would slow them down a bit to me?
-Here's the first one for you, Dame Judi.
This is his review of "Skyfall."
-"Skyfall" is up next.
This film, hands down, is her best.
I love this film. 10 out of 10.
No words.
-Lovely.
But I don't want to make everybody here
think they're all 10 out of 10s.
-Oh, dear.
-He reviewed another film of yours,
one that I was not familiar with and, based on the review,
I might not be rushing out to see.
This is the film "Run For Your Wife."
-"Run For Your Wife" is up next.
This film only came out on DVD, and there's a reason why.
But my grandma played a cameo as a homeless woman,
who smacks Danny Dyer over the head quite early on in the film.
It's a 1 out of 10 at best.
-[ Laughs ]
[ Applause ]
-Well... -I'll take it up with him later.
-Yeah. Please do.
Please take it up.
And I think we can all agree, it's time to go back
and rewatch "Skyfall."
Hey, thank you so much for being here.
Congratulations on "Belfast." It's a beautiful film.
And hopefully, next time, you'll be here in person.
-Thank you, Seth, very much, indeed.
Thank you. -Dame Judi Dench, everybody.
"Belfast" is in select theaters and on demand now.