Dame Judi: He’s Bond, JAMES BOND not a woman
Judi dench thinks women can do anything they want when it comes to film — except play James Bond.
The great dame, who herself pulled off a gender switch when she was cast as Mi6 spymaster M in 1995’s GoldenEye, told me she was strongly opposed to 007 swapping sex and being played by a woman.
‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘Bond ought not to be a woman because, essentially, that kind of model — Bond as a woman — was not in the writing.’
She said in the world of acting women ‘should have a go at anything’ — but she said the description of Bond was ‘very specific’. ‘What would ian Fleming say?’ she mused. ‘Well, he’s not here to ask,’ she added, with a giggle.
dench said she thought someone should ‘create a character, for a female agent to play front and centre, that’s nothing to do with Fleming, and not make Bond a woman. is that clear?!’ Perfectly.
We had met to discuss her beautifully judged performance as Madame Arcati in director Edward Hall’s sparkling big screen adaptation of Noel Coward’s dark comedy Blithe Spirit. in the film, which has just moved its release date from May 1 to September 4, her medium inadvertently conjures up the late first wife of playboy writer Charles Condomine (dan Stevens).
Would she like to be conjured up as M again, i wondered? ‘i died, Baz!’ she said. ‘it was 18 years,’ she added wistfully, referring to the time she spent filming her role in the
Bond films. She said that perhaps ‘i’ll come back as Ghostie M’. i like the sound of Ghostie M. if the Bond folks don’t take it up, it’d be the perfect name for a rapper.
dench has always had a talent to amuse. Lately she has been tickling the nation’s funny bone during the Covid-19 crisis by appearing in two hilarious videos on social media.
She gave a great turn as a purring cat when she recited Edward Lear’s The Owl And The Pussy-Cat ditty with Gyles Brandreth while they demonstrated washing hands.
Then on Wednesday her daughter Finty Williams posted a ten second clip of ‘Ma’ wearing a furry dog hat with flip-up ears as she declared: ‘Just keep laughing! That’s all we can do.’
Boris should draft her in as comedienne-in-chief, and booster of the nation’s spirits, immediately.