Judi Dench Reveals Vin Diesel Wooed Her with Kayak-Long Flowers

Judi Dench has revealed that Vin Diesel sent her a bouquet of flowers "easily the length of a kayak" to persuade her to join the 2004 film The Chronicles of Riddick. The disclosure comes in her new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, in which the 91-year-old actress admits she is "far too easily wooed".

Dench describes the scene in her own words. "He came to see me at the Haymarket Theatre to ask if I'd be in The Chronicles of Riddick," she wrote. "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. They were easily the length of a kayak. And as wide."

The gesture worked. "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 play Aereon, the elemental ambassador who guides Riddick, Diesel's character, through his travels to rescue his old allies and confront the head of the Necromonger empire.

What does this change for her screen legacy?

The memoir shows that Diesel's flowers were not an isolated case. Gifts, Dench writes, have repeatedly won her over.

Kenneth Branagh, she recalls, 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." She added: "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?'"

The cast list sealed the deal. "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?" she said.

Dench played Princess Natalia Dragomiroff in the 2017 mystery-drama, directed by Branagh. Her verdict on the role is blunt. "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," Dench said.

The memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, strings together these admissions of professional vanity and affection. Dench does not apologize for them.

Readers now have the pattern: a kayak of flowers from Diesel, an embroidered handkerchief from Branagh, and a co-star list too rich to refuse. Dench's account suggests that the casting of at least two studio films turned on gifts that cost far less than the parts they secured.