Here are some photos of the always-lovely Judi Dench at the Olivier Awards last Sunday. She was honored with a record-breaking eighth Olivier Award, and Kenneth Branagh came as her date. Can I just say? I think Dame Judi is so lovely. I love looking at her face and I love that she isn’t Botoxed to hell or stretched beyond belief. She’s so attractive and stately. Regal, even. Anyway, as many of you know, Dame Judi left the James Bond franchise with Skyfall. Her version of “M” was written off and now Ralph Fiennes plays the new M. But Judi loved her time with the franchise, so much so that she kept the Bond theme as her cell phone ring. So much so that she still has opinions about who should be James Bond. And guess who she’s for? Lord Dragonfly himself.
It seems Tom Hiddleston has left Dame Judi Dench all shaken and stirred as she’s boldly endorsing him to be the next Bond after previously suggesting the role could be too difficult for the fledgling actor. The veteran actress, who recently described the part of 007 as “such a mantle to assume”, exclusively tells Day & Night that she now believes the 35-year-old hunk could rise to the challenge.
“It’s a really difficult role to take on and I feel Tom might be the one to do it,” says Dame Judi, who played spy boss M in several of the series.
“He was in Cranford [TV period drama in which they both starred] and I haven’t spoken to him since but he seems to have done really well.”
Tom, who impressed audiences playing the lead, Jonathan Pine, in BBC’s just-finished The Night Manager, has made no secret of his desire to take over from soon-to-be-retired Daniel Craig. He even sent fans into a flurry after his character ordered the secret agent’s signature drink in the concluding episode. Bond franchise’s producer Barbara Broccoli is also said to have initially thought Tom was “too posh” but “she’s been impressed. She wasn’t familiar with his whole catalogue, but she’s watched hours and hours of footage and her perception has totally changed. Playing Pine was a wise move. He’s tapped in to a mainstream audience and shown his versatility.”
The first rule of being James Bond is that you can’t openly campaign to be James Bond. Tom Hiddleston seems to have realized this mid-stream. Even if we say that the Tom-Bond rumors are just fan-fantasies after The Night Manager, you have to admit that Tom was definitely playing around with those rumors in several interviews. And that’s just not how Bond is done. Besides all that, I maintain that Tom would just be a terrible 007. I think Judi is just being nice, and she’s followed Tom’s career somewhat and she doesn’t think he would be terrible.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
No. Just no. No, no, no.
But he could play a villain. He’s good at that.
He looks like a comic. There’s no way he should play JB.
Oh, Judy. Have a seat.
Er, excuse me- Please have a seat, Dame Dench.
It’s good that you corrected yourself. Glad I didn’t have to deliver a virtual bitch slap 😉
No, it is Dame Judi. 🙂
Consider yourself slapped.
I don’t know, after watching Night Manager I thought he’d do a damn fine job as 007. People freaked out over Daniel Craig at first but then ate their words after seeing Casino Royale. #1 choose is still Idris, but I can get behind Tom as Bond.
@Coco …
I agree with both points. 🙂
I remember no one wanted Daniel Craig, when he was chosen, and not just because of the uproar over a “Blonde Bond.” But he nailed it and many think he’s the best Bond since the original.
Tom’s a great actor, so I think he could succeed at just about any role. I haven’t seen him in anything where I thought he was miscast, or just not very good….in general, I think good actors can’t be miscast, because they can act well enough to nail whichever part they’re handed.
I think the acting industry has changed a lot in these past 10 years. Public persona matters more than ever.
Daniel is grumpy, manly, mysterious. That works for Bond. Tom is so twee, even if he played the role right I wouldn’t buy it.
Then again, it is true Bond casting choices always are controversial. So Tom does have that in his favor. And he IS talented.
Pierce Brosnan was ‘Twee’ for a very long time, but he turned out to be one of my favorite Bonds.
Daniel, grumpy?! Not in any of the interviews I’ve seen. He’s a lovely, funny guy.
@Emma
I’m with you. Pierce Brosnan was ‘twee and also is one of the best Bonds there’s been (#2 or #3). I like Daniel Craig too. I think Craig’s style is more intense/stern (maybe where grump reads from) and rugged. Whereas Brosnan’s was more polished, slick, sophistication. Not saying either of them were lacking in any department, just portioned differently, and both great versions of a Bond.
That being said, Brosnan was considered quite genteel (twee?) because of his role as Remington Steel which was a bit of a Bond parody type character. He also had to wait the longest before finally getting the part. IDK if that was because of the perception of him as twee or because the fear of Bond being seen as the parody Remington Steel, or because Brosnan was holding out for more money – or all three.
If Tom’s Bond would be similar to Brosnan’s, I’d be fine with that. But not if he’s more like Roger Moore. If he’s somewhere between Brosnan and Moore, the only way I could see that working is with Exceptional writing and very clever tweaking of the Bond persona. Problem is that no matter how convincing Brosnan’s Bond was, audiences’ expectations will be compared to Craig’s.
@Cranberry
Actually he was hired to be Bond but Remington Steele opted to continue production and he had to honour that contract and drop out of Bond. So none of those three!
@Smurphy
That may be the case, but I do remember early on there was a fair push against Brosnan for the part. It seemed it was mostly from the British though. Whereas in the US people felt that he SHOULD be Bond because he’d already been successfully playing that type character on TV and had become quite a favorite of US audiences (especially women).
After seeing And Then There Were None, Aidan Turner could definitely play Bond.
Agree. I’m not one of his hysterical fans, but seeing him in that, he has resting handsome-jerk face, which is perfect for Bond.
I cosign this. After that, I could totally see it.
I didn’t even know who this was until Googling him just now. Wow! He’s very handsome. I could see this guy as James Bond.
Wasn’t Friend Request Pending after Cranford? But then, it has been said that Dame Judi is a notorious liar.
Hey, cut the lady some slack, she is 80 and might just have forgotten. Lilac, you are not allowed to call our National Treasures liars.
That’s INTERNATIONAL treasure and I’m only quoting something I heard somewhere but can’t remember who said it. Maybe it was during the Muse of Fire love-in that she did. Or maybe she’s right and FRP was filmed first but released much later. They didn’t share a scene but there are cast pictures of them hugging each other.
Also, she says she hasn’t seen him since but she attended the Attenborough memorial last year where he did one of the readings.
I’m leaning towards “notorious liar” I’ve also heard she gifts her young male co-stars with needlepoint pillows on which she has stitched descriptions of bawdy acts she wants to perform with them.
I love her.
Actually, on second thought I’m leaning towards this story being completely made up by a journalist who is not as knowledgeable about TH as Lilac! I would bet that if they knew about FRP and the Attenborough memorial they’d have said that she has kept in touch with him since Cranford and used that FRP cast photo with the story.
I think “notorious wind up artist” might be more accurate. In addition to being a National Treasure, she is also one of those. A very good Britisher sense of the ridiculous.
Which she must have developed after wearing that green paint and leaves costume as Titania in Peter Hall’s version of Midsummer Night’s Dream!
I love her. I think this might be part wind-up by Judi and part mis-quoting, because it’s repeating that story about Barbara Broccoli that must have been made up – there’s no way someone close to her has leaked her private thoughts about the next Bond when Daniel Craig hasn’t announced he is quitting yet. That makes me go ‘hmmm’ about their ‘exclusive’ from Judi too.
Judi has had the same hair style for fifty years. And rightly so, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I’m sure Tom could be a really good Bond, whether he should be is another issue.
@lilac, that was my first thought as well (Friend Request being after Cranford) but if I remember correctly, I don’t recall them having any scenes together in Friend Request, so maybe she didn’t actually see or talk to him then.
I also think this interview is mostly cobbled together bullcrap. I saw an interview that she gave at the Oliviers where she was asked abiout Tom as Bond and she gave a very polite but reserved answer. (Something like “I met Tom when we worked together on Cranford and he was enchanting. I’m sure he’d make a good Bond, but it’s a big role to fill” or something to that effect. I didn’t get the sense of a ringing endorsement from her.
Maxine, they don’t have any scenes together but there are cast photos of them together. And she attended the Attenborough memorial at which he did one of the readings.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/bf/9b/b1bf9bdd6eb37384957361c0bdecc444.jpg
I agree the piece is probably cobbled together nonsense.
There’s a photo of the FRP cast together. As it’s a short I suspect it was all done in one day, rather than piecemeal, so they’d have probably hung out together.
Noooooooooooooo!
Only idris will do
I’m not on board with him as Bond for a couple of reasons, first and foremost of which is that his work time would be taken up by the franchise, as does Marvel. I’d prefer to see him available to take on a wider variety of roles.
Second, I think he could do a decent Bond, but the only way I see that happening is if he does it with a twinkle in his eye—obviously not taking it seriously—much as Pierce Brosnan did. And I think that’s why Brosnan didn’t last very long in the role (more’s the pity). That isn’t the direction those responsible for the franchise think it should take.
I like TH. I like his look and I think he has great talent. But I don’t know about Bond. I’m not feeling it. A british lady I work with was talking about her fave Brit actors, and he’s one. When I asked her about Bond though she said “He doesn’t quite have the bottom for it”. I thought she meant his ass, but turns out that phrase means guts or gravitas or something like that. I can agree.
Yes! This is what I was trying to say in my comment above. Much as I like TH, he doesn’t have the gravitas to pull off a gritty Bond. Maybe he could develop that, though…
So Idris is considered ‘to street’ by the new writer, and Tom is ‘to posh’ by the exec producer.
What on earth are these people looking for? I though Bond was just supposed to be suave and action hero-y.
People fill in the blanks of who they want as Bond. Mine would go back to Connery’s Bond or someone with similar energy.
So I thought this sounded familiar but ‘off’, and my friend found the brief RC interview from the Oliviers which they are misquoting. It is the interviewer who is pushing her hard to comment on Tom as Bond–she does say he is a very very good actor, and she’s sure he could do it, but she also makes a non-committal comment re the difficulty of being Bond.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/716890584338665473
Perhaps a sympathetic nod to Craig, perhaps her way of saying Tom will never have the role. 🙂
Anyway, she remarks on his having been in Cranford (and, again, says how good he is) but doesn’t say ANYTHING about not having seen him since then. She doesn’t say anything at any point in the video about when she saw him last.
So I’m thinking that was some ‘journalistic license’ by the writer, to go along with the made up stuff about Barbara Broccoli.
A journalist, making things up? Well that must be a first.
Skull Island – how is it that Tom has perfectly styled hair whilst walking through the jungle! He looks so out of place in that clip.