Judi Dench Recalls Her First Meeting With James Bond Co-Star Pierce Brosnan

The charms of former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan were not lost on Dame Judi Dench, who recalls her first meeting with the 007 star on the set of 1995’s GoldenEye. Brosnan, who had originally been prevented from taking over as Bond following Roger Moore’s departure, was the first choice for producers to succeed Timothy Dalton in the mid-90s. Meanwhile, Dench was tapped to replace Robert Brown as the new M, Bond’s boss and head of MI-6, a role that she would continue to hold until 2015’s Spectre.

Speaking with People about her new book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent,the veteran actor recalls being flustered when she first encountered Brosnan while filming GoldenEye. Fondly describing her co-star as “an adorable man” with whom they shared their respective first days on set, she recalled that her daughter, Finty, was also particularly struck by the actor’s signature good looks when she encountered him backstage. Check out her comments below:

Be still, beating heart. He was just an adorable man. He was absolutely glorious to work with, and as a person.

His first day on Bond was my first day. But he was Bond! The both of us, I think, [were] pretty jumpy.

[Finty] walked out of my dressing room as Pierce was coming in. It was like a cartoon person. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Why Pierce Brosnan’s GoldenEye Remains One Of The Most Important James Bond Movies

Many Thought Bond Would Never Work In A Post-Cold War Era

Today, there is a lot of hype about who would surpass Daniel Craig as the iconic character. However, if it were not for Brosnan’s GoldenEye, the spy series might have ended with Dalton’s Licence to Kill. Even though plans for a 17th James Bond movie began not long after Licence to Kill’s 1989 release, production would stall following the emergence of legal dramas between United Artists (and its parent company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and the Broccoli family’s holding company responsible for ownership of the Bond film rights.

While those disputes would eventually be settled, the resulting delays spelled disaster for what was originally planned to be Dalton’s third outing as 007. Not only did Dalton’s original three-movie contract expire in 1993, but in just a few years, the real-world geopolitical landscape shifted significantly, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall and resulting in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. With Bond’s character so heavily rooted in Cold War-era politics, many felt the franchise would not resonate with audiences growing rapidly accustomed to a post-Cold War world.

Quite cleverly, however, the heavily revised script for what would eventually become GoldenEye addressed these concerns directly. Moreover, with the decision to position Dench’s M as a new breed of spy boss unafraid to blatantly accuse Bond of being a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and a “relic of the Cold War,” the franchise began sowing the seeds for a more modern Bond that continued right through Craig’s more recent tenure. When the new Bond is officially announced, they will still owe much to Brosnan’s debut as the world’s most famous spy.

Source: People