Judi Dench Dench commented that the project launched her Hollywood career and joked that "it was thanks to Harvey, whose name I have had tattooed on my bum". Dench's other film of 1997 was Roger Spottiswoode's "Tomorrow Never Dies", her second film in the "James Bond" series. The same year, Dench reteamed with director John Madden to film "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), a romantic comedy-drama that depicts a love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes, while he was writing the play "Romeo and Juliet". On her performance as Queen Elizabeth I, "The New York Times" commented that "Dench's shrewd,
Judi Dench the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical "The Merry Wives", a version of "The Merry Wives of Windsor". Dench appeared opposite Cate Blanchett as a London teacher with a dedicated fondness for vulnerable women in Richard Eyre's 2006 drama film "Notes on a Scandal", an adaption from the 2003 novel of the same name by Zoë Heller. A fan of Heller's book, Dench "was thrilled to be asked to ... play that woman, to try to find a humanity in that dreadful person". The specialty film opened to generally positive reviews and commercial success, grossing US$50 million