Eileen Atkins admits she had a ‘cross moment’ with Judi Dench after losing out on role
Acclaimed actress Eileen Atkins was rather annoyed when her friend and fellow performer Judi Dench swooped in and nabbed a role she had her eye on.
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Eileen Atkins shed light on her professional and personal relationship with fellow actress Judi Dench, admitting she once had a “cross moment” with her.
The acclaimed actress appeared on a repeated episode of Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh which aired this Sunday (July 28).
Best known recently for her main role in Doc Martin as well as Netflix’s The Crown, Eileen opened up on some friendly competition with her contemporaries Dames Judi, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright.
Alan relayed a humorous moment in a recent sit-down with the four stars in the film Nothing Like a Dame: “Someone said rather waspishly to Judi Dench, ‘we only get parts when you turn them down!’”
“I do remember she squeezed something in between two films,” Eileen recalled.
“And I got the message, ‘If she can’t squeeze it in we’re coming to you’.”
Eileen didn’t divulge what the part was, but confessed she was a little peeved when Judi found time in her schedule after all.
“I did have a cross moment when she decided she could squeeze it in and did three in a row.”
Despite being disappointed when she lost out on the role, Eileen never felt like she was in direct competition with her acting peers.
“Maggie and Judi, and Joan as well, all did so well, long before I… I didn’t make it in any way until I was 32.
“They were all going at it in their 20s, so they all seemed to me to be the stars, so I didn’t feel I was in competition with them, strangely.”
During the chat, Eileen also reminisced about her BAFTA-winning turn as Miss Deborah Jenkyns in the BBC One drama Cranford.
She co-starred with Judi in the acclaimed period series, but surprised Alan when she revealed she initially didn’t believe the role would be any good.
“I didn’t think it was a good part, at first,” she said. "But I loved the cast.
"And I felt like a television [show] over the summer. I thought, ‘It’s not a very demanding part, but I’ll do it’.
“I really didn’t think it was a very good part. But then one of the young boys, I wish I could remember his name, I’m so grateful to him…
“He said to me one day, ‘I love your character’. And I said, ‘Why?’ And I hadn’t done very much so it was really handy.
“He told me all the reasons why he liked someone as stern as Deborah, and it made me want to play her. So it was useful.”
