Judi Dench has commented on her current feelings toward Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, who each played a part in the Oscar-winning actress’ life and career before their respective #MeToo allegations.
Spacey, who starred alongside Dench in the 2001 film “The Shipping News,” comforted her after her husband Michael Williams’ death that same year. Meanwhile, Weinstein was instrumental in her career when his production company Miramax acquired the 1997 drama “Mrs. Brown,” which was Dench’s first lead film role.
Speaking in a new interview with The Radio Times about her thoughts on forgiveness, the 90-year-old Dench said that Spacey “has been exonerated” and they “text.” Spacey was acquitted of sexual assault charges in a U.K. criminal trial in 2023 and was also found not liable in a civil case brought in New York in 2022. However, the actor is set to face three more claims of sexual assault in London civil court next year.
Of Weinstein, who has now been convicted of rape and is serving prison time, Dench said: “I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, ‘Well…’ ‘I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience — very fortunately for me.”
Though she has empathy for his victims, Dench continued, “I imagine he’s done his time… I don’t know, to me it’s personal — forgiveness.”
Dench has previously spoken with The Radio Times about Spacey and Weinstein, telling the British publication in 2019 that their work should be separated from their alleged offenses.
“Are we going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did, how wonderful he’s been in all those films?” Dench said of Spacey. “Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced? You cannot deny somebody a talent. You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting. You might as well never have gone to see Noel Coward.”
Read Dench’s full interview in The Radio Times here.
