James Bond stars were frightened to take on demanding franchise

Judi Dench recalls being told she ‘wasn’t right for film’

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From 1995 to 2012, Dame Judi Dench starred as the first female M of the James Bond film franchise, opposite two 007 stars: Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. In 50th anniversary film Skyfall, her MI6 boss was killed off, only to cameo in “pre-recorded” footage in 2015’s Spectre and as a portrait in 2021’s No Time To Die.

Yet when Dench was first cast as M, she and the new Bond Brosnan were petrified to be taking on the much-loved film franchise.

Speaking on the BBC’s Louis Theroux Interviews… Dame Judi Dench, the 87-year-old remembered being offered the role in 1995’s GoldenEye and telling her late husband.

She said: “Well I came home here and I said to Michael, ‘They want me to play M’. He said, ‘You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it. I’ve got to live with a Bond woman!’”

However, Dench admitted: “Both Pierce… I think Pierce wouldn’t mind me saying… we were both very, very frightened, you know, suddenly taking over those two roles. It was very, very demanding and one was nervous about it.”

This isn’t so surprising given that the Bond franchise had been on its longest hiatus of six years, caused by legal disputes. 

The last film to release at the time was 1989’s Licence To Kill and by 1995, incumbent 007 star Timothy Dalton’s contract had expired.

Dalton was asked by Cubby Broccoli to return, but he only wanted to do one more. However, the producer felt after such a long gap, a comeback would only be justified if he made several more outings.

As a result, Brosnan was cast. The Irish actor had previously bagged the role in 1987’s The Living Daylights but had to bow out as he was contracted to continue with his TV show Remington Steele. Dalton was cast instead with very little notice. 

Also in that six year hiatus, the Berlin Wall had fallen, marking the end of the Cold War and Bond had to warrant his own existence in the new geo-political landscape. Luckily for Dench and Brosnan, they had nothing to worry about as GoldenEye ended up being what fans consider to be one of the best Bond movies.

During her interview with Louis Theroux, the M star also admitted she prefers acting on the stage to theatre and shared why she hasn’t watched many of her films.

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Dench explained: “You don’t get so many goes at it either. I mean, for me, the whole filming is…is agony for me simply because you can’t…once it’s, well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Once it’s there, it’s there. If you’re in the theatre you can get it better on Tuesday and perhaps not so good on Friday. But in Film, you work on it and you do it and then the director decides and says, ‘Cut’ and that’s a print.

Asked why she doesn’t watch some of her movies, the actress replied: “Because I would be irritated.”

Louis Theroux Interviews… Dame Judi Dench is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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