Dame Judi Dench talks Bond, politics and more
26-Sep-2018 • Actor News
Dame Judi Dench has just been awarded the Donostia Award for outstanding contributions to film at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. To acknowledge her body of work, the 83 year-old actor's latest film, Red Joan, was screened and she faced the press in the sun in Spain. Here she recalled her wish to the Bond producers that M get out of the studio, Variety reports.
“I did eight Bond films, and after about four or five I asked: ‘How is it that I never get to go anywhere?’” she explained. “So the very next time we filmed was in a public school in Britain, and they put me in a trailer that said Innsbruck on the side, and they said ‘There, now you can never complain again.’”
She recalled how Hollywood persona non grata, Kevin Spacey, was supportive and a good friend to Dench when she was going through some hard times on The Shipping News. The former 'M' went on to criticise his removal from Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World. "I can’t approve, in any way, of the fact that — whatever he has done — that you then start to cut him out of the films,” she said. “Are we to do what happened when he was replaced with Christopher Plummer? Are we to do that throughout history? Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offense, are they always going to be cut out?"
Dench also weighed in on #MeTo and inequality, saying: “It is an extraordinary moment of change, a sea change at the moment. And there are many more parts for women, which is very good indeed, and long may that go on.” The actor also played down her sway in the industry, remarking that she doesn't demand or seek roles, she's offered them and takes them "I can’t bear to turn a part down because I think I might not be asked again."
