The Iconic Director Judi Dench “Waited 75 Years” To Work With

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With his extraordinarily prolific career as an actor and director, it’s difficult for stars who dream of working with Clint Eastwood to miss that opportunity. Having been steadily making movies for seven decades, collaborating with Eastwood is a wide-open window. Still, the detours and pratfalls of the industry can distract anyone, including another storied and experienced actor, Judi Dench, who waited a healthy “75 years” to work with the Hollywood legend. It should’ve taken as long as it did for these two icons and Oscar winners to team up, but we can be grateful to J. Edgar, Eastwood’s 2011 biopic about the longtime controversial head of the FBI, for bringing them together. Even when it’s a middling effort in Eastwood’s filmography, actors will do anything to work with him, the true actor’s director.

Judi Dench Was Thrilled to Work for Clint Eastwood on ‘J. Edgar’

J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) sits in court behind a swarm of microphones in J. Edgar — Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Clint Eastwood embarked on a mission to capture the lives of the most influential figures of the 20th century onscreen, starting with Nelson Mandela in Invictus and continuing with Chris Kyle in American Sniper. His last decade as a filmmaker would be defined by biopics about heroic figures like Sully and Richard Jewell, which examine the implications behind heroic acts and how the world perceives these figures. In between these films was J. Edgar, prominently the first and lone collaboration between Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio, playing the titular J. Edgar Hoover. Told from a nonlinear structure, the film follows Hoover’s rise to becoming the inaugural director of the FBI for nearly 40 years, hitting on all the major facets of his life, notably his illicit wiretapping and his ambiguous personal life involving his sexuality.

The emotional crux of J. Edgar lies with the budding law officer’s relationship with his mother, Annie (Dench). Both personally and professionally, she is Hoover’s conscience, grounding this mythic figure in American history to complement Eastwood’s restrained and minimalist direction. Annie, like her son, wielded immense domineering power and influence in her household, which molded Hoover’s vindictive and Machiavellian streak while in office. The role, evocative of Lady Macbeth, an unassuming female who subverts power dynamics, was perfect for Judi Dench, an accomplished British thespian. Needless to say, Dench was thrilled when she received the offer to work with a legend in Clint Eastwood. “When he rang me up, my voice went up several octaves,” Dench told Female.com.au. It was about time they teamed up, the then 75-year-old actor thought, remarking, “I’ve waited 75 years for this.” Dench was Eastwood’s first choice to play Annie.

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Blended image showing Judi Dench with her name in blue letters in the background.

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Why Actors Love Working With Clint Eastwood

It may seem strange that Dench celebrated her offer to star in J. Edgar as the role of a lifetime, considering where the film sits within Eastwood’s filmography. Due to its tepid examination into Hoover’s life, formulaic biopic tropes, and notoriously ridiculed old age makeup, the film is not high on many people’s Eastwood rankings. Regardless, the opportunity to work with such a master is never to be taken for granted. J. Edgar includes a healthy mix of established vets and up-and-comers, including Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Dermot Mulroney, Ken Howard, Josh Lucas, and Adam Driver in his film debut, beginning his quest to work with every great living auteur. Eastwood’s films, character-driven dramas about psychological paradoxes and morality fables, are gift-wrapped for actors to thrive on screen.

In an age where more movies require re-shoots and expensive special effects, shoots are becoming more grueling for actors. Clint Eastwood, famous for shooting just one take with his actors during filming, is a blessing for performers longing for a smooth, professional operation. His films consistently finish under budget and ahead of schedule (Million Dollar Baby only became a Best Picture winner because of his expeditious filming). Even if Eastwood wasn’t an intelligent, curious filmmaker who directed actors to a handful of Academy Awards, it’s nice to know that your workday will conclude at a reasonable hour. Sure, the fake baby in American Sniper looks cheap, but everyone, including the underpaid crew members, loves that Eastwood doesn’t waste their time.

As an actor, Clint Eastwood understands the psychology of performers better than anyone. In contrast to his image as a ruthless gun-wielding outlaw, he is incredibly sympathetic and vulnerable to the needs of his stars. When filming Richard Jewell, Kathy Bates recalled that he ordered people to give her space so that she could breathe and lock into her emotionality in a respective scene. By refusing to yell “cut” or “action,” he adopts a warm, relaxing set for actors to flourish. More than anything, Eastwood trusts his actors to nail a scene in limited time and leaves them to their own devices, which explains why every film of his garners the finest actors in Hollywood.