5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘James Bond’ Star Judi Dench: Her Love Life, Hobbies and More

Judi Dench opens up about her early years, her greatest passion and more in these five facts about her.

I Was Discouraged From Making Movies

She’s won an Oscar and two Golden Globes, but early on in her career a prominent director told Judi, “I would never make films [because I had] the wrong face.” Undeterred, she’d go on to act in more than 60 movies.

My Marriage Was Full of Laughter

“Michael used to laugh, and when he laughed, he used to cry,” Judi, 90, told the Daily Express of her late husband, British actor Michael Williams. The couple were happily married for 30 years.

Cooking Is Not My Forte…

After preparing lunch for her agent one day, “he said these very words: ‘Well, Jude, I’ll tell you one thing, you didn’t get your OBE for cooking!’” she told the Financial Times. “I hate it — I’m a dreadful cook!”

…But I’m a Terrific Gardener

“If you’ve got any room at all, plant a tree,” Judi has said. “Because it’s a living thing, you can watch it grow and every time you come back to it, the tree will have changed.” Over the years, Judi’s planted more than 100 trees on her six-acre property in Surrey, England. “I think of my trees as part of my extended family.”

I Don’t Like Wriggly Things

“I’m a person who is frightened of a worm because one jumped inside my sandal when I was a little girl, and we couldn’t get it out,” said Judi, who was panic-stricken when a snake used in a 1987 theater production of Antony and Cleopatra found its way into her wig. “I was so scared I lost my voice for two days!”