Dame Judi Dench was the biggest prankster on the set of 'Belfast'.
The 87-year-old actress starred in the coming-of-age drama film alongside 11-year-old actor Jude Hill, and he's revealed that Judi loved playing pranks on the set.
Speaking about the fun they had together, Jude told 'E! Live from the Red Carpet': "Well, there was a lot of whoopee cushions. That’s what I’m gonna say. There was a lot of whoopee cushions during scenes.
"By the end of [filming], if someone sat down on a whoopee cushion, we all just turned heads to Judi Dench."
Jude plays Judi's grandson in 'Belfast'. And the young actor admits that having similar names made things a little difficult for them.
He told People: "One of the inside jokes on 'Belfast' is everyone called Judi Jude. So it was a bit confusing and Judi Dench was like ‘All right, I’ve had enough of this. So you’re the old Jude. I’m the younger Jude.'"
'Belfast' won the Best Original Screenplay gong at the Oscars on Sunday (27.03.22).
The film centres on The Troubles in Northern Ireland - but Sir Kenneth Branagh, the director, chose to tell the story through the eyes of a child, as he didn't want the film to become a political piece of work.
He previously explained: "We chose to have the point of view of a nine-year-old boy and, in so doing, we didn't cop out, I don't think, but we avoided trying to get into what you might call politics in the overt sense."
The acclaimed filmmaker also found a "fresh perspective" on The Troubles amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
He said: "I didn't want to just be staring at my own navel.
"It wasn't personal therapy, it was really to see whether the story of a family in a difficult situation - where humour and all the other coping mechanisms we come up with to try and deal with difficult times - could speak to other people.
"This lockdown promoted that, I think, because the introspection and the feeling unsettled that we've all shared really drove me back to that time."
