Judi Dench Reveals Daniel Craig Suggested M’s Death in Skyfall

Judi Dench’s departure from the James Bond films gave Skyfall one of its most affecting moments. In her new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, she says the decision to kill M was Daniel Craig’s idea. The account adds a personal perspective to a scene that marked the end of Dench’s long run in the role.

Dench joined the franchise in GoldenEye, opposite Pierce Brosnan, and remained as M through Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. She continued when Craig took over as 007. Her character’s story concluded at the end of Skyfall in 2012, with M dying after years at the center of the series.

An excerpt from the memoir, published by Variety, recalls Dench hearing the plan over lunch at London’s Wolseley restaurant. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson and director Sam Mendes told her that M would be killed off. Craig wasn’t at the meeting, Dench writes.

“Apparently, it was Daniel’s idea to have me killed,” she says. Her dry delivery matches the humor she brings to the memory. Dench had, after all, spent years hoping that M might get out from behind her desk and into the action. “Ever since ‘GoldenEye’ … I’d been begging them to let me out from behind my desk,” she writes. “Well, they did finally let me out from behind my desk… and they shot me.”

A farewell with Dench’s own sense of humor

Her wish for a more active part began early in the run. While the GoldenEye crew filmed abroad, Dench says she had only a few days of work in Watford. The contrast between her hopes for M and the character’s eventual fate makes her recollection especially pointed: she finally got a dramatic exit, though not the kind of action role she had imagined.

There was another indignity on the way out. Ralph Fiennes’s character took over as the new head of MI6, meaning M was dismissed before her death. Dench jokes about being sacked by Fiennes, and pokes fun at her replacement in the memoir. The scene’s emotional weight on screen sits alongside the performer’s much lighter account of how the change was presented to her.

Dench also pushes back on a story she says followed her for years: that she cried when told she was being replaced. She says she didn’t. By then, she had enjoyed what she describes as 20 glorious years and 8 Bond films. Her comparison with Roger Moore is another joke at her own expense: she notes that her total was one film more than Moore, whom she calls the longest-running 007.

For Dench, the role’s appeal extended beyond its place in a major film series. She says she enjoyed playing M because the character could put men in their place. One exchange with Brosnan’s Bond remains a source of particular pride: M calls him a “sexist, misogynistic dinosaur.” The remark became one of the best-known lines from her time in the films, and it captures the sharper, less deferential authority she brought to the part.

The small scene she chose not to watch

Dench’s final appearance came later, in a brief cameo on a television screen in Spectre. She says filming took about an hour and left her disappointed. She has never watched the film. That brief return offers a striking contrast with the long arc of her M: after years of carrying scenes opposite two different Bonds, her last contribution was short enough to leave her feeling that it had not given her much to do.

Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? is from St. Martin’s Press and is written as a conversation with actor and director Brendan O’Hea. The book looks back on Dench’s career, with her Bond memories drawing particular interest as the franchise approaches its next era. The recollections focus less on a grand account of the series than on the details an actor remembers: limited time on an early shoot, a lunch where a character’s fate was disclosed, and the pleasure of delivering a cutting line.

Dench recently told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program that she can no longer perform on stage or in film. That makes her memoir a record of a career she can no longer extend through new performances, as well as an opportunity to revisit a role that clearly gave her lasting enjoyment. Her stories leave M’s farewell with two tones at once: a moving ending for the character and a wry, unsentimental goodbye from the actor who played her.

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"Skyfall" (2012) Trailer https://t.co/RIlVd9bEwJ

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