Have regrets in your life? Dame Judi Dench has it. The Oscar winning actress revealed that she and her late husband, Michael Williams, had tried to adopt a sibling for Finty, their only daughter, but they were over 40 and Michael was Catholic and she was a quaker.
The 76-years-old actress, who plays as MI6 in the new James Bond film Skyfall said, “I wish we’d had lots more children. That’s the only regret I have. But I was older and it didn’t happen. We tried to adopt a child and they didn’t like it because we were over 40 – and Michael was a Catholic and I was a Quaker. It obviously wasn’t to be.”
The star has 14-years-old grandson, Sammy living with her, and she says, “Ever since my grandson Sammy has been living with me, I have noticed that teenagers like to come and lie about the house like puppies. But then he probably thinks me erratic. My fear is that I have only taught him how to put money on a horse and to open a bottle of champagne properly.”
Dame Judi took seriusly on motherhood, she even contemplated giving up her career after Finty’s birth in 1972, when she was 37-years-old, she told Yours Magazine, “I’d had a daughter and having a family, I wanted to be at home.
“Michael wouldn’t let me stop, though. So in the beginning I tried to arrange things so I was with her during the day and going to the theater in the evening when she was in bed. Later on, when she went to school, I could do things like television during the day to be with her in the evening.”
Having a family and living together in their home near Stratford on Avon with her widowed mother and Michael’s parents, the actress who won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elisabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, doesn’t regret a day of it.
“It was originally Michael’s idea,” she recalled. “One night he said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all live together?” That was absolutely my idea of heaven then.
“It was like a proper Quaker community, certainly for bringing up a child, but also the whole idea of looking after your parents. Everyone had their own room but there didn’t seem any point to me in getting a place where we didn’t share a living area.
“Of course that sometimes created quite a lot of tension. I wouldn’t say for a second that it was always easy and I was in tears quite often. On one occasion I even threw a cup of tea at Michael and his mother – fortunately, I missed!
“But the good times quite outweighed the bad and I don’t regret a day of it.”
She has learn from her marriage that lasted for 30 years, even she’s “got a temper” that “not many people have seen it.”
“One thing I have come to learn about love is that you should never, ever take each other for granted. If I could have something written in poker-work on my wall, that would be it. Michael and I made the effort each time, and the rewards were splendid.”
Having 54 years in this business, the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards winner has worse nerves now, than when she started.
“I’m never confident about the work I do and I’m very, very reliant on a director. Everything I do, there’s always something that jumps up and hits me in the eye.”
Retire is far beyond she could thought, “because if I retire I think I should fall over.”
“You’ve got keep learning. I think everybody should take the time to recite two lines of something everyday. I’ve also just taken up sudoku – bloody difficult, isn’t it?”
On her next James Bond’s movie, the plot is expected to center around M, the head of MI6, and her past. Skyfall will be Judi’s seventh James Bond Film, and her third with Daniel Craig as 007. She has her own opinion with her co-star and missed her last co-star.
“Daniels an incredible talent and I love working with him but I still miss Pierce,”
“He was a very warm man and always a lot of fun, always laughing and joking. Pierce was great to have around the set. We became close friends.”
“I did four Bonds with him so I missed him after he finished with the role.”
“There’s no comparison between him and Daniel. They’re completely different actors but both are brilliant men with a fantastic sense of humor, very self-mocking, which you need to play Bond.
“But you miss anyone you make a relationship with and you think at some point you’ll maybe cross paths again. And I did, with Pierce, in a play. If you get on with somebody well, you never really break that.”
Has been on the role as MI6 for so long, making it ingrained in her everyday lives but not all.
“I suppose I’m a bit like M because there are bits of me in every character I play,” laughed Judi. “But I don’t think I’m anywhere near as bossy as she is. I’d be chucked out the house if I was. I just like playing M being very, very cross and keeping Bond in order is a lot of fun.”
She loves being recognized as M. “Its very nice when people come up to you and just say hello,” said Judi.
“I walk everywhere when I’m in New York and when people recognize me they come up, give me a high five and say good work now that’s simply wonderful.”
There are some we don’t know about her, behind her serious face, aristocratic beauty and calm eyes, she says all…
“I’m very frightened of worms, ever since one jumped into my sandal when I was a little girl. I can get on with a snake, just not worms. And I hate the dark; I used to get claustrophobic in the cinema.
“I’m a great prankster on set, but I couldn’t tell you about it because it’s only for the actors. I like to laugh. I like to have fun. But I cry a lot at work. I’m very, very sad when something is over.
“Am I an exerciser? Not in the slightest. I drink champagne. I’ll start exercising tomorrow.
“The current love of my life is my horse Smokey Oakey. I like it when he wins, but the bit I like best is when I know he’s safe, having some hay at Newmarket.
“The problem with having a dog, four cats, two guinea pigs, 12 water voles, two goldfish, a hamster and two field mice is that you can’t get them all out at the same time. Certainly not. Somebody might eat somebody.
“I’m very frightened of worms, ever since one jumped into my sandal when I was a little girl. I can get on with a snake, just not worms. And I hate the dark; I used to get claustrophobic in the cinema.”
