HOLLYWOOD - Iris, about brilliant British writer Iris Murdoch, her rise to fame and her unfortunate suffering from Alzheimer's disease in last few years of her life, just earned Britain's reigning queen of stage and screen Judi Dench's fourth Oscar nomination in five years. Is enough ever enough?
"It makes me think a lot of people are saying, 'Oh my God, not again,'" Dench told The Associated Press with a laugh after the announcements were made Tuesday.
She added, "It never ceases to be exciting. And as I've always said, the nomination bit is the exciting bit; it's horrible when someone has to go and win it all."
Dench's past Oscar nominations included Best Actress for her work in 1997's Mrs. Brown and Best Supporting Actress for 2000's Chocolat. She won Best Supporting Actress in 1999 for her small but powerful turn as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare In Love.
Dench feels particularly gratified by her nomination this year because of the hard work she put into playing Murdoch.
"It was quite hard to get the film put together, so for that reason it's good," she said.
Also nominated from Iris are Kate Winslet in the supporting actress category (for playing Murdoch as a young woman) and Jim Broadbent as Murdoch's long-suffering husband, John Bayley.
The 67-year-old actress said she was sorry that director Richard Eyre and co-star Hugh Bonneville, who played the younger Bayley, weren't nominated as well.