Dame Judi Dench won’t retire.
The 86-year-old actress has no intention of slowing down and thinks if she gave up work, she might as well just give up on life too.
She said: “Retirement is not a word used in my house…
“You don’t retire, for goodness sake! You might as well fall onto a shelf and lie down.”
The ‘Belfast’ actress admitted the coronavirus pandemic had made her more emotional.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper’s Baz Bamigboye: “I find that your emotions are much rawer. It’s the uncertainty of not knowing how we’re going to come out of it.”
And Judi was delighted to get back to work last year on ‘Belfast’, despite the various safety measures in place.
She said: “[It was] glorious . . .like suddenly being released from a cage.”
However, because of her deteriorating eyesight, the veteran actress – who suffers from macular degeneration – admitted people wearing masks until they said their lines caused her problems.
She explained: “I kept going up to the wrong person, having a conversation, and they’d say, ‘I’m not who you think I am.”
The ‘Skyfall’ actress has previously admitted she can no longer read her scripts so needs someone to help her learn her lines, but she’s hoping technology can help.
She said: “I have sent away for a machine that might make it easier for me to read. It’s a special screen that changes the size and density of the print.”
Although she enjoyed working on ‘Belfast’, Judi – who has Irish relatives – was pulled up for her Northern Irish accent frequently during filming.
She admitted: “I was a naughty girl and didn’t know it properly.”
The actress was very impressed with 11-year-old Jude Hill, who plays her grandson in Sir Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical tale.
She said: “Oh, he’s adorable, that boy! He was very shy, but not to the extent that he wasn’t able to do the part. There’s a wonderful, real, genuine sweetness about him. He’s a heavenly boy.”
