Judi Dench Felt ‘Tremendous Responsibility’ Playing Kenneth Branagh’s Granny in ‘Belfast’

thewrap.com:

Pass the potatoes.”) Since then, they have tapped into their shared sense of humor, love of Shakespeare and close friendship to work together 11 more times — from Branagh’s 1989 film directorial debut, “Henry V,” to 1996’s “Hamlet” to 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express” to, finally, their most recent collaboration, “Belfast.”Directed by Branagh from a script he wrote inspired by his own childhood, the movie tells the story of a tight-knit clan in Northern Ireland struggling to keep each other safe as sectarian violence explodes in 1969. (Branagh and his family emigrated to England from Belfast that year, when he was 9.) In September, the movie won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, and since then, it has been celebrated many times over as one of the top films of 2021: by the New York Film Critics Online, the Broadcast Film Critics Association and many other prominent groups.

This month, it earned a SAG nomination for best ensemble cast.At the center of the coming-of-age tale is Buddy (Jude Hill), a young boy in love with the cinema who watches his neighborhood fall apart (and is clearly based on Branagh).

He is looked after by his no-nonsense Ma (Caitriona Balfe); practical Pa (Jamie Dornan); tender-hearted Pop (Ciarán Hinds), and warm, witty Granny (Dench), a delightful font of old-fashioned wisdom.

Playing a woman based on Branagh’s real grandmother upped the stakes considerably for Dench — no matter how far back the two of them go. “It is good, always, to know somebody so well that you have a kind of shorthand with them, which I have with Ken because we’ve worked together for such a long time,” Dench told TheWrap.