{"id":828549,"date":"2026-11-08T23:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T23:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/828549\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T23:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T23:38:12","slug":"judi-dench-reveals-she-was-wooed-into-roles-im-cheap-as-chips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/828549\/","title":{"rendered":"Judi Dench Reveals She Was Wooed Into Roles: ‘I’m Cheap as Chips’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJudi Dench<\/a> can\u2019t say no to a big bouquet of flowers, especially if they\u2019re kayak-sized and come from Vin Diesel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe came to see me at the Haymarket Theatre to ask if I\u2019d be in \u2018The Chronicles of Riddick,\u2019\u201d Dench wrote in her new memoir, \u201cIs It Too Late to Make a Run for It?\u201d \u201cBefore he arrived, he sent me such a massive bunch of flowers. They couldn\u2019t get them up the stairs to my dressing room, so they had to leave them at the stage door. They were easily the length of a kayak. And as wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t say no to a man like that, can you?\u201d she joked, adding, \u201cI\u2019m cheap as chips, me. Far too easily wooed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConvinced by the gesture, Dench went on to play Aereon in the 2004 film, the elemental ambassador who guides Riddick (Diesel) through his tumultuous travels to rescue his old allies and confront the head of the Necromonger empire.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis wasn\u2019t the first time gifts wooed the 91-year-old actress into a role. She also revealed Kenneth Branagh gave her \u201cthe most wonderful embroidered handkerchief when he asked me to be in \u2018[Murder on the] Orient Express\u2019 \u2014 with the character\u2019s initials on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe must\u2019ve known that\u2019d make me say yes; he\u2019s so sneaky. But then I\u2019d do anything for Ken. If he said, \u2018Will you play a mat on the floor in Three Sisters?\u2019 I\u2019d say, \u2018When do I start?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThen, of course, little by little, I found out who else was involved in \u2018Orient Express\u2019: Olivia Colman, Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi \u2026 How could I resist?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDench played Princess Natalia Dragomiroff in the 2017 mystery-drama but said she had mixed feelings about the character.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDon\u2019t ask me anything about her. She was some old broad who sat around with a lot of jewelry and a couple of Shih Tzus \u2014 one black, one white,\u201d Dench said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judi Dench can\u2019t say no to a big bouquet of flowers, especially if they\u2019re kayak-sized and come from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,25588,56,54,55,12967],"class_list":["post-828549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-judi-dench","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vin-diesel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}