So after being cast in the 1987 National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra, Dench was terrified when director Peter Hall said there would be live snakes on stage.
Dench was initially surprised to be cast as the Egyptian queen: “I turned to Peter, aghast, and said, ‘You can’t have this extremely dwarfish and menopausal woman as Cleopatra – as she was very tall.” Dench, just over 5ft, was then in her early 50s.
“I came home and told Michael about the snakes,” Dench told BBC Radio 4, in a new documentary, Roleplay, to be broadcast on 24 February.
She said Anthony Hopkins, who was playing Mark Antony, would sometimes whisper to her as he lay dead at the end of act IV.
The National Theatre also used snakes during its production of the play in 2018, with Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra.
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