Judi Dench is making history as the oldest person ever featured on the cover of British Vogue.
The legendary actress, 85, graces the cover of the magazine's June issue. In the accompanying interview, she opens up about her career, starring in "Cats" and how she's spending her days during the coronavirus outbreak.
Dench, who got her start performing onstage in Shakespeare plays and won an Oscar in 1999 for her role in "Shakespeare in Love," has stayed busy as Britain extends its national lockdown. "I haven’t got my family with me, but we are keeping in touch lots by phone calls and FaceTime," she said of life while social distancing. “I am disciplining myself to learn all the sonnets. I try to learn something new every day, anything."
The actress is hopeful that the pandemic will inspire people to be more considerate. “What is a good thing is that it has made people aware of the predicament of others who are completely alone,” she said. “If a great deal of kindness comes out of this, then that will be a plus.”
Dench played the wise feline Old Deuteronomy in "Cats," the 2019 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical that bombed with critics and at the box office. Though she has yet to see the movie, which was filmed in green screen, she still bristles at the images of her character she saw months ago.
“The cloak I was made to wear!” she cried. “Like five foxes f------ on my back.”
She'd hoped Old Deuteronomy would look elegant, but that didn't quite happen. “A battered, mangy old cat,” Dench said, appalled. “A great big orange bruiser. What’s that about?”
The June issue of British Vogue hits newsstands on Thursday.