Dame Judi Dench is teaming up with a number of celebrities for a charity Zoom performance in order to raise money for arts workers who are struggling in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The actress has stated that Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Kenneth Branagh will all be joining her for the special event.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, she explained: ‘We can’t appear on the stage and we can’t be in a studio… but we can be on this extraordinary thing called Zoom.’
Judi, 85, revealed that although she will be looking forward to the virtual show, none of the cast will know much about the play they will be performing in advance, calling the prospect ‘very frightening’ and ‘an actor’s nightmare’.
She continued: ‘We’re all going to be together and it’s for a very good cause called Acting For Others.
‘It does go to the people who are all self-employed and don’t necessarily act but work in the theatre and keep the theatres going.’
Later discussing the government’s £250 million emergency funding to help arts venues, museums and cultural organisations survive during the pandemic, she said: ‘We naturally want more but then so does everybody.
‘[The arts] does bring a huge revenue to the country and people during lockdown have turned to watching television and old films and new films and whatever they can.
‘Actors have got together in all sorts of forms in order to entertain others, and so that’s partly why Acting For Others is important. As well as all the people in the theatres who keep the theatres going.’
The former James Bond star later added that we ‘need to help and encourage’ young people who are just finishing drama school, and will be looking for jobs in the industry during this challenging time.
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