Judi Dench reflects on playing M in Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, published on November 3 by St. Martin's Press. A Variety excerpt from her conversation with Brendan O'Hea covers the craft of the role and her recollection that Daniel Craig proposed M's death in Skyfall.
Building a character behind the authority
Dench describes imagining M's past to give herself a foundation, even when audiences never see it.
Beginning with GoldenEye in 1995, she worked opposite Pierce Brosnan and later Craig. She sees Bond's changing style as a move from polished ease toward a rougher, more realistic figure. That is her personal reading of the franchise.
She also remembers familiar crews under producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, contrasting that continuity with the difficulty of learning frequent late rewrites on Tomorrow Never Dies.
Remembering the end of M's story
Dench recounts being told the Skyfall plan by the producers and director Sam Mendes. She recalls the conversation with humour and attributes the story choice to Craig. She later filmed a brief screen appearance for Spectre.
Dench recalls arriving home at 10 p.m. to receive a dozen new script pages before a 5 a.m. pickup. M's technical dialogue made late changes particularly demanding. The newly published memoir, built around her conversation with Brendan O'Hea, brings those working experiences and character memories to readers.