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I am excited to feature one of the few people to put fear into me and tell James Bond what to do. That person is the one and only Dame Judi Dench. Dench has done it all and is considered one of Britain’s greatest and most iconic actresses. With a career spanning over six decades, Dench has garnered quite a collection of awards with an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards. We need to get Dench to EGOT status. She is such a versatile actress that she has been nominated eight times for an Academy Award. She is my queen.
M – James Bond (1995-2015)
I LOVED Judi Dench as M in the James Bond series. I loved her when she was more in the Daniel Craig turn as James Bond. Starting with Goldeneye back in 1995 and ending with Spectre in 2015, Dench had a great 20-year run as James Bond chief supervisor. She brought the badass, strict but also funny supervisor that Bond needed. Rather than having another male play M, Dench brought that gender equality. I wish she could’ve kept going as this character but all things must come to an end.
Queen Elizabeth I- Shakespeare in Love (1998)
You know you are a true boss and queen when you win the Academy Award and only on screen for an even 8 minutes. That is what you call a BOSS move right there. Dench is great in this film even for her short time. Not only does she look like a queen but acts like it. Dench was so short with people and had some major passive aggressive nature to her character. She played the queen as someone who didn’t have time for any drama or BS. I think that is the way a queen should act.
Barbara Covett- Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Judi Dench is one of my favorite actresses and she was awesome in this film. Going from yelling at James Bond, Dench stars as Barbara who has a dark side in this film. She plays a schoolteacher who becomes attracted to another teacher played by the beautiful Cate Blanchett. The scene between her and Blanchett arguing was great. Both actresses received Oscar nominations with Dench receiving her sixth Oscar nomination.
Iris Murdoch- Iris (2001)
In a film about novelist Iris Murdoch and her relationship with her husband, John Bayley, Dench is amazing as the older version of Iris. Dench showed the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the novelist. For her performance, Dench racked up the nominations by receiving her fourth Oscar nomination along with her fourth Golden Globe nod and her seventh nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award. That is big time right there.
Esme Allen- Amy’s View (1999)
Have to give props to Dame Dench in her role as Esme Allen in Amy’s View. Dench is great as Esme who is a well-known British actress caught in a changing West End climate. In the role, Dench shows what happens as the world changes on stage and in life. When her daughter comes and visit with her boyfriend things ensue as she butts heads with several people over the course of sixteen years.
Philomena Lee- Philomena (2013)
Dame Dench is amazing in this true story film about an elderly woman who has been searching for her missing son for 50 years. Dench shows her incredible range and shows that she is one of the best when showing immense emotion. You want to talk about some emotions and phenomenal acting, that climax is where it is at. Dame Dench put on a master class.
Queen Victoria- Mrs. Brown (1997)
How is it that it took almost 30 years for Dame Dench to be nominated for an Academy Award? What a shame! Mrs. Brown was the film that it happened in where she played Queen Victoria. The film follows the story of recently widowed Queen Victoria and her relationship with a servant. Dame Dench is marvelous and the first of many times she plays a queen. Maybe she was a queen in her past life because she has the role down pat.
Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
Dame Dench earned her fifth Oscar nomination playing the widowed socialite Laura Henderson. Dame Dench was great as the title character who purchases a London theater just before the start of World War II. She went hard on stage with showing female nudity but also a place below ground where performances were held as the bombings of London were happening. Dame Dench knows how to play a strong female character that is eccentric and fun to watch.
Granny- Belfast (2021)
In a film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, Belfast is a coming-of-age story about a young boy’s childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of The Troubles in 1969. Against some major violence and people just straight up backstabbing each other there is one thing that can change everything. That thing is LOVE. Dame Dench plays the boy’s grandmother who shows him love and straight up fun. It reminded me of my times with my grandmother without the violence. Dame Dench is always at her best and was nominated for her eighth Academy Award. That’s big time.
Eleanor Lavish- A Room with a View (1985)
Sometimes you don’t need to be the headliner to have an impact on a film. That was Dame Dench in A Room with a View. When you have the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in a film, you can take a back seat. Dame Dench plays a romance novelist who gets juicy details of a story about an affair going on.
