To Dame Judi Dench, the Oscar ceremonies were also “unbelievable,” to use her words. As she recalled: “The first time I went (for “Shakespeare in Love”), I took my daughter and it was so larky. I’m always terribly star struck. We were black-and-blue from nudging each other the whole time, trying to draw attention to people. The next time we went, we were all rather blas about it. Our car was late. We got there and the place was all locked up. Somebody said, ‘Oh, God, they want a shot of her while Whoopi Goldberg arrives as Elizabeth II.’ So we were smuggled in.”
For Dench, it was not revenge to win after being passed over for “Mrs. Brown,” for which she received her Best Actress nomination in 1997, because she really didn’t think she was going to win either year. Dench doesn’t remember much, “except my husband Mikey saying to me, ‘I think you’ve won, Jude.’ I don’t remember getting up there. I remember Robin Williams curtsying. I remember crying in a lift. And then I remember meeting the Italian man Roberto Benigni” (winner of Best Actor Oscar for “Life Is Beautiful”).
