Judi Dench says Daniel Craig was behind the decision to kill off her character, M, in 2012’s Skyfall. The actor, who played James Bond’s boss in eight films over two decades, shared the story in an excerpt from her memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, published by Variety.
Dench recalled being taken to a restaurant by producer Barbara Broccoli, producer Michael G. Wilson and director Sam Mendes, who explained the plot and told her that M would be killed. She said Craig was not there, as far as she could remember, but added that it was “apparently” his idea. Her remarks were delivered with a humorous tone.
Dench said she had repeatedly asked to spend less time behind M’s desk, a request that began during her first Bond film, GoldenEye, in 1995. “They did finally let me out from behind my desk … and they shot me,” she said. In Skyfall, M is dismissed by Ralph Fiennes’s character before her death. Dench’s M later appeared posthumously in Spectre.
The memoir excerpt also looks back at the making of 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, which Dench described as her most difficult Bond film. She recalled a production marked by frequent last-minute rewrites, including one occasion when a motorcycle courier delivered a dozen new pages at 10 p.m. for her to learn before an early-morning pickup.
Sources: IGN.