The 91-year-old actress admitted she is “far too easily wooed”

NEED TO KNOW

• Judi Dench says Vin Diesel sent flowers so large they had to be left at the Haymarket Theatre stage door
• The 91-year-old actress joined Diesel in 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick as alien ambassador Aereon
• Dench also recalls Kenneth Branagh winning her over with an embroidered handkerchief for Murder on the Orient Express

Judi Dench admits one actor went to great lengths to get her to sign on to a project over 20 years ago.

In conversation with co-author Brendan O’Hea for her new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, the 91-year-old actress revealed that Vin Diesel had to woo her before she accepted a role in his 2004 sci-fi action film.

“He came to see me at the Haymarket Theatre to ask if I’d be in The Chronicles of Riddick. Before he arrived, he sent me such a massive bunch of flowers. They couldn’t get them up the stairs to my dressing room, so they had to leave them at the stage door,” Dench shared. “They were easily the length of a kayak. And as wide.”

“You can’t say no to a man like that, can you?” she joked, adding, “I’m cheap as chips, me. Far too easily wooed.”

Dench went on to star alongside Diesel, Colm Feore, Thandiwe Newton, Karl Urban and Alexa Davalos in the movie. The iconic actress played Aereon, an ethereal alien ambassador who guides Diesel’s Richard B. Riddick into battle.

However, she noted that Diesel, 59, wasn’t the only actor who easily persuaded her into accepting a role. Dench admitted that Kenneth Branagh gave her “the most wonderful embroidered handkerchief when he asked me to be in [Murder on the] Orient Express — with the character’s initials on it.”

“He must’ve known that’d make me say yes; he’s so sneaky. But then I’d do anything for Ken. If he said, ‘Will you play a mat on the floor in Three Sisters?’ I’d say, ‘When do I start?’ ” she added. “Then, of course, little by little, I found out who else was involved in Orient Express: Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi…How could I resist?”

Dench portrayed Princess Natalia Dragomiroff in the 2017 mystery film, but admitted she wasn’t necessarily fond of the character.

“Don’t ask me anything about her. She was some old broad who sat around with a lot of jewelry and a couple of Shih Tzus — one black, one white,” she told O’Hea.

Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? is available now wherever books are sold.

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