Judi Dench filmography Judi Dench filmography Dame Judi Dench is an English actress who has worked in theater, television, and film. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in "Hamlet", Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth". She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Over the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre
Emma Thompson specialises in playing "a good woman in a frock". She also plays many haughty characters, with a "bracing, nanny-like demeanour", but she is noted for her ability to win the empathy of audiences. Thompson belongs to a group of highly decorated British actresses including Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter who are known for appearing in "heritage films" and typically showing "restraint, rendering emotions through intellect rather than feelings, and a sense of irony, which demonstrates the heroine's superior understanding". Projecting a typically "British image", Thompson's often dogmatic and tight-jawed manner has also been compared to Maggie Smith.