Judi Dench reveals Daniel Craig suggested killing her in Bond

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• Why a female M felt of-the-moment
• How she built M from scratch
• Styling, gadgets and the joy of being authoritative
• Working with the Bond family: producers, crews and repeat collaborators
  • Directors and scripts that shaped each experience
• The strain of last-minute rewrites
• Tracing M’s evolution across the Bond saga
• On-screen chemistry: her thoughts on Bond actors
• The final curtain: Skyfall, the kill-off and a brief return
• How she reacted to leaving the role

Judi Dench turns the spotlight on two decades of James Bond in her frank new memoir, revealing behind-the-scenes moments, creative choices and the personal takeaways from playing M. The Oscar winner, now 91, opens up in a conversation with Brendan O’Hea in Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, due Nov. 3 from St. Martin’s Press.

Why a female M felt of-the-moment

Dench says the move to put a woman at the helm of MI5 in the Bond universe mirrored real-life change. Casting a female chief felt like a deliberate nod to shifting times.

She stresses she wasn’t attempting to portray any one public figure. Their paths simply crossed in the public imagination. Still, Dench recalls meeting the real-life intelligence chief only once, years later.

How she built M from scratch

Rather than play M as a cardboard official, Dench filled the role with imagined history.

• Education and grit: she envisaged an Oxford law background and a climb through a male-dominated world.
• Private life: the character’s family details emerged over several films.
• Personality: M became tough, direct and comfortable with authority.

These choices, she explains, gave her confidence and texture when stepping in front of the camera. Small backstory details helped her anchor the performance, even if viewers never needed to know the full biography.

Styling, gadgets and the joy of being authoritative

Dench admits she savored the chance to boss the male characters around. The role let her wear sharp suits, handle spy gizmos and play a woman who often had the last word.

She also found a playful contrast between the polished exterior and the absurdity of acting with props she would never use in real life.

Working with the Bond family: producers, crews and repeat collaborators

Dench describes the Bond production as a close-knit operation. The producers treated the cast well and kept a core crew from picture to picture.

That continuity created a sense of belonging. Familiar faces returned on each shoot, from make-up artists to co-stars, which made rejoining the franchise feel like coming back to a company.

Directors and scripts that shaped each experience

• Beloved collaborators: she enjoyed working with certain directors who brought out the best in the role.
• Less happy shoots: some films suffered from continuous rewrites and instability.

Dench says her enthusiasm often depended on script quality and directorial steadiness. When both aligned, she found the work rewarding.

The strain of last-minute rewrites

One production tested her patience: a film that went through frequent script changes. Pages would arrive late, sometimes by courier at night, demanding rapid study.

That unpredictability made performance work harder. Some scenes were technical and dense, and new dialogue arrived with little time to internalize it.

Learning lines under pressure became a recurring challenge on that particular shoot, she recalls.

Tracing M’s evolution across the Bond saga

Dench watched the character evolve through eight films. Little revelations—marital details, hobbies, private grief—appeared as plots demanded.

• Early films: M is the deskbound authority.
• Middle chapters: glimpses of domestic life arise.
• Later entries: widowhood and hidden depths surface.

She enjoyed that the films gradually revealed more layers. One small touch she liked: the disclosure of M’s real name only in the final film, after years of anonymity.

On-screen chemistry: her thoughts on Bond actors

Asked which 007 she preferred, Dench dodges a single favorite and praises the way each actor reshaped the role. She keeps a soft spot for the original Bond but celebrates how successors made the character their own.

She notes a shift in the franchise’s tone. Bond became grittier and more grounded across her tenure, reflecting changing audience tastes.

The final curtain: Skyfall, the kill-off and a brief return

Dench recounts being summoned to a meeting where filmmakers explained M’s fate. The decision to end the character’s arc was difficult but intentional for the story.

She attributes the idea to a leading actor in the later films, and remembers the awkwardness of being fired on screen by a fellow cast member in the narrative.

Although her character dies in the climactic film, Dench returned for a quick, filmed cameo in the follow-up. The sequel appearance was brief and straightforward to shoot.

How she reacted to leaving the role

Press reports said she was tearful at the news. Dench dismisses that, saying she felt no need to weep after a long, rewarding run.

She points out a little-known trivia: the number of Bond films she joined surpassed the tenure of some long-running 007s.