‘Gossip and laughter’: Dames team up for movie with a twist

We’ve loved them on screen and on stage for decades, but have you ever wondered what some of your favourite actresses are like in real life?

Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Joan Plowright and Dame Eileen Atkins are all legends in their own right, but regularly join forces for catch-ups in the English countryside when they’re not busy on movie projects. For the first time, they’ve let cameras record everything that happens at one of their meet-ups for a unique new documentary.

Tea with the Dames is set to be released in Australia next month and celebrates the lives of 83-year-old Dench, Smith and Atkins, although with 88-year-old Plowright.

“From time to time, four extraordinary actresses meet up,” the trailer for the film says.“To gossip, to laugh and to remember.”

Early footage shows the women getting their hair done and hilariously cracking jokes with one another as the cameras roll. While they’re all big names in the industry today, it wasn’t always so easy for the four ladies to find work. In fact, they discuss how they started off as struggling actors in the 1950s before making it bigtime in the United Kingdom and around the world.

Atkins explains how she did her first ever play at the age of 10, while Dench recalls forming a strong friendship with Smith in 1958. She remembers performing at the Edinburgh Festival, something 83-year-old Smith can’t quite recall.

“Were we good?” she asks Dench, who is in fits of laughter that her pal can’t remember what happened. “Too long ago.”

Directed by Roger Michell, the film sees each actress talking about their own career and how their lives changed as they made it big in theatre, television and movies. With their ages combined, the four are 342 years old and have been working in the industry for more than seven decades.

“I wanted these amazing women to do what they are all world champions at doing: talking: yacking, gossiping, reminiscing, reflecting, cursing, loving, praising and laughing,” Michell says. “I wanted the film to make us feel like we’re eavesdropping, that nothing’s been rehearsed, or is being presented to camera. My ambition was to create something that felt like anthropology, like journalism, like a privileged intimacy, not reverential, not polite, not hovering deferentially around Grand Dames.”

In addition to their catch-up in the English countryside, the film is also expected to delve deep into the archives for photographs, film footage and other material to tell each woman’s story.

Despite being in their eighties, all women have projects they’re currently working on. Dench has recently finished filming Red Joan and is currently working on a film called Artemis Fowl. Smith recently voiced her Harry Potter character for a new video game, while Atkins appeared in the recent Doc Martin series and in children’s film Paddington 2.

Tea with the Dames will be released in Australian cinemas on June 7.

What do you think? Who is your favourite Dame? Is this a movie you’d be interested in seeing?