Judi Dench Expresses Her Sorrow Over Maggie Smith's Passing

 

Dame Judi Dench has expressed her grief following the death of her close friend, Dame Maggie Smith.

 

 

During the Cheltenham Literature Festival, actor Brendan O'Hea asked Judi Dench about Dame Maggie Smith. He also mentioned the passing of Judi's husband, actor Michael Williams, and asked her to clarify her previous comparison of grief to petrol.

 

"I suppose because the energy that's created by grief...," she replied, before cutting her answer short, apparently lost for words.

 

Near the end of the session, O'Hea hesitated before saying, "I know this might be a sensitive topic, given the recent loss of your dear friends Maggie Smith and Barbara Leigh-Hunt." Leigh-Hunt, an Olivier Award-winning actress, passed away last month at the age of 88. She and Dame Judi had appeared together in the 1992 BBC sitcom As Time Goes By.

O'Hea then mentioned a previous explanation that Dame Judi had given about coping with loved ones' deaths. In a past interview with The Times, discussing the aftermath of her husband's death, she said, "Sometimes you have to do a play, and it's incredibly cathartic. You fortify yourself and use what you're going through as energy. Like petrol. It has helped me cope with the pain."

O'Hea questioned her on that, asking, "You say grief can act as petrol, what do you mean by that?" Dench didn't directly address Smith, Leigh-Hunt, or her husband who died in 2001. But after mentioning her grief, she trailed off.

"It's difficult," O'Hea interjected.

Dench went on to talk about the trees she plants at her home in Surrey, in memory of her loved ones who have died. She also laughed about how some of the trees grow to resemble the person they're honoring, while one of them, dedicated to the late actor Bob Peck, "won't grow."