Judi Dench on Joining TikTok During Quarantine: ‘It Saved My Life’
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Judi Dench has won an Academy Award, a Tony, two Golden Globes, 10 BAFTA Awards and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. But her latest achievement is going viral on TikTok.
Dench has joined her grandson Sam Williams on the mobile app, taking part in dance videos and skits that have hundreds of thousands of views.
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She opened up to Channel 4 News in an interview about how the app has helped her during quarantine as the film and theater businesses have been shut down since March.
“It saved my life. I know nothing about TikTok. Sam is the person who is technically-minded and who has all the ideas, so he got very strict,” she said.
The award-winning actor added that “every day is so uncharted” and that it’s hard to keep track of time, something most people in quarantine can relate to.
“You wake up and wonder what day it is,” she said. “Then you wonder what date it is and sometimes what month. Then you think, ‘What do I do today?’ and the prospect is, ‘Well, what is there to do today?'”
No stranger to long rehearsals, Dench said her grandson pushed her to learn the dance moves seen in their videos.
“He made me do it. I had to rehearse all those moves. Don’t just think that comes naturally,” she said.
She also shared what her initial quarantine goals were, but she hasn’t made as much progress as she’d hoped.
“I planned to learn every Shakespeare sonnet,” she said. “I’ve got to about nine, and there are 154, so I’ve got a bit of a way to go there. I’ve done a bit of painting and I’ve talked to friends and rehearse my TikTok and done it with Sam.”
Dench most recently appeared on the big screen in “Cats” in the U.S. and had her latest film “Artemis Fowl” moved from its theatrical release to launch on Disney Plus. In the U.K., she starred in the war drama “Six Minutes to Midnight,” which was pulled from theaters amid the pandemic, and she has “Blithe Spirit” scheduled for this December.
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