Legends Only; ‘Tea With the Dames’ Dench, Smith, Atkins and Plowright Look Back on Their Careers
Dames Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, and Joan Plowright reflecting on their storied careers, their friendship, and the memories that still make them laugh in Tea with the Dames https://t.co/Mrrt4WNk5g
- VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) September 25, 2018
Among the topics they discuss in the documentary opening Friday, September 28, in Los Angeles ; their careers, their friendship, insecurities about their appearances & rude male directors they have encountered.
Also discussed is Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright's husband for 30 years & Maggie Smith's in a 1964 National Theatre Gallery production of Shakespeare’s Othello (who wore backface for the role).
“Darling Frank Finlay,” Smith says in the film of their co-star, who played Iago, “he came offstage one night. He flew to the corner and he started tearing at his eyes. I thought, ‘What has happened?’”
Finlay, who had vision problems, had decided to try contact lenses for the first time that evening.
“He said, ‘I have just seen Sir Laurence, and I never want to see him again.’ He couldn’t get [the contact lenses] out fast enough . . . he couldn’t see his hand in front of him. Poor man.”
Sources: the Vanity Fair tweet Vanity Fair Varity The New York Times