Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love

Best Supporting Actress at the 71st Annual Oscars (1998)

Notable Quote:

“Have a care with my name, you will wear it out.”

Synopsis:

If you take the phrase, “Judi Dench is my queen” literally, then this movie is for you.

The character:

I’ve written about a Queen Elizabeth before for this column, but not this one, so I’m excited to really run the gamut of history. Notably, Liz is barely in this movie, but when she does appear, she’s amazing. She essentially shows up in two scenes. In the first, Lord Wessex, hopeful future husband of Viola, brings her in front of the queen to be judged. And judge she does: Elizabeth is a snarky asshole to everyone involved. She mocks Viola’s love of theater and reminds her that actually bitch, those plays are for meeee, not you. And she tells Lord Wessex that Viola is definitely going to leave him for the theater and by the way, she’s already fucking someone else, toodles!

In the second, she shows up out of nowhere to get all the main characters out of trouble when Viola and the performers almost get tossed in jail for putting a woman on stage. She really is like a Greek goddess who comes down from high to interfere in the matters of mortals, mostly because she’s bored. She shuts down misogynist bullshit, and affirms the power of theater, and rolls her eyes at the cheesy lackeys that she’s surrounded with, and what more could I want from a character?

The performance:

On one hand, it’s total nonsense that Dame Judi Dench got an Oscar for this role. She’s an incredible actress, but this is a bit part, and it’s so standard for Dench that she absolutely could have acted the role in her sleep. However, Dench’s standard is amazing, so I’m really into the performance. First of all, she’s a wildly regal individual, so I absolutely believe her as an all-powerful queen. And even in her eight minutes, she gets to be bitchy and dismissive and feminist and baller, and it’s so satisfying, and yes, I’m sure this was a call where someone decided that it was her time to win an Academy Award, but it’s definitely not a bad decision.

The movie:

Like I said in Gwyneth’s entry, I really enjoyed this movie. I love how meta it is – it’s a movie about Shakespeare and his plays, constructed like a Shakespeare play. There’s drama and comedy, and a million characters and subplots, and references to Shakespeare’s other works, and it’s really smart. I’ll also say, there are some pretty interestingly progressive elements, like the idea that Shakespeare actually got all of his ideas from the people around him: it’s a nice way to bust up the idea of the male genius, even though I doubt it was meant to be all that radical.

Was the Oscar deserved?

Yes, I don’t think I’d quibble with an Oscar for Judi Dench in any film.