James Bond: The 007 stars who were ‘very frightened’ to take on ‘demanding’ franchise | Films | Entertainment

However, Dench admitted: “Both Pierce… I think Pierce wouldn’t mind me saying… we were both very, very frightened, you know, suddenly taking over those two roles. It was very, very demanding and one was nervous about it.”

This isn’t so surprising given that the Bond franchise had been on its longest hiatus of six years, caused by legal disputes. 

The last film to release at the time was 1989’s Licence To Kill and by 1995, incumbent 007 star Timothy Dalton’s contract had expired.

Dalton was asked by Cubby Broccoli to return, but he only wanted to do one more. However, the producer felt after such a long gap, a comeback would only be justified if he made several more outings.

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