Inside Maggie Smith and Judi Dench's 60-Year Friendship
"They just crack each other up and have a lovely time," said writer Ol Parker.
— -- For the past six decades, Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench have been close friends.
In "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," a sequel to the 2012 film, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," they're co-stars, too.
And, according to the film's writer, Ol Parker, they'll finally get to do scenes together.
"Actually, there’s an apology in the first movie for that -- when Maggie says, 'We haven’t talked much, you and I,' and Judi says, 'My loss, evidently.' And that’s me basically going, 'I’m so sorry, everybody. I screwed up,'" he told Vulture. "In this one, [director] John [Madden] said they should argue. ... I rung him up one day and said, 'I know what they’re going to argue about — which one’s gonna die first.' So I rung up Maggie and Judi and said, 'This is what you bicker about.' And they were delighted. It pleased them enormously."
Smith and Dench, both 80, met in the 1950s as students at the Old Vic Theatre in London. In reality, Dench is 19 days older than Smith, and Parker laughed that they "love that s***."
"They’ve been best friends [for] 60 years, and they just crack each other up and have a lovely time," he said. "It’s extraordinary. They are both extraordinary, and to have them both twice is a rare gift. It’s the easiest thing in the world, when you’re 80, to not go to India to make a movie. So I couldn’t believe that they showed up again."
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