Dame Judi Dench Once Had 1 Complaint About Her Role in the James Bond Franchise
The James Bond franchise has had actor Dame Judi Dench portray the new M for both Pierce Brosnan’s and Daniel Craig’s movies.
As much as Dench enjoyed portraying the character, she did have one complaint about the way M was written.
Judi Dench didn’t know that she was playing a female M
The character of M has been a significant part in the lore of James Bond. In the films, M is often the head of MI6 and James Bond’s boss. But the character has often been portrayed by male actors until Dench’s take on the role in the 1995 film Goldeneye. Since then, she’s played the character through Brosnan’s and Craig’s Bond series up until Skyfall.
During her time as M, there was a certain uniqueness that came with playing a female version of Bond’s boss.
“Well, I think the plus is because then it’s a very different angle on Bond. It’s not a man putting another man to do it. There’s a woman, and add into the fact that she is his senior, it puts another angle on it. It puts a certain strain on it,” she once told Coming Soon about the role.
But when she first began to play the character, Dench had no idea that M’s gender was being changed to begin with.
“I don’t think I realized how much of a responsibility it was when I was playing M in Goldeneye, that the character had changed sex. It wasn’t until the film came out that I realized, ‘Oh, female M.’ So you do feel very, very responsible,” Dench once told Flick and Bits (via Contact Music).
Judi Dench once had 1 complaint about her role in the James Bond franchise
Dench has often stated that she’s very pleased with the role. However, she used to be bothered that M wasn’t given much to do outside of her office. Fortunately, it was a problem that was remedied by future Bond movies.
“I once complained that I never got out in a Bond film, and then in one of them – I think in The World is Not Enough – we went to Stowe school, so they said, ‘You can never complain again,’” she said.
She was also grateful that she had an even more active part in 2012’s Skyfall directed by Sam Mendes.
“As head of MI6 I have lots more to do, and much more to be involved in – and some very, very naughty boys to deal with. It’s lovely to do, it’s a thrilling part to play. And you do get to be a huge figure of authority, you get to boss James Bond about,” Dench shared.
How Judi Dench compared Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan’s James Bonds
Working with the two up close, Dench remarked that Craig and Brosnan were two vastly different actors. But there were still certain qualities the two shared when playing Bond.
“Well, it’s Bond, but the difference between the two is very extreme. Daniel’s much more a kind of Bond of today, but both of them have a self-mocking quality about them, which is essential for him too, much like the ironic thing of being able to say something outrageous and be very relaxed about it. British phlegm, stiff upper lip, you know, you can mock that at any time,” she said.
The two being so different affected the way Dench played M in the separate Bond franchises.
“In a way, that is what has to happen, but by nature of the fact that they’re different people, how I would treat Pierce with one line or two lines would be different from the way I would [talk to Daniel], simply because of the way they would react,” she explained.
