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,
Shakespeare in Love generation of playwrights. His plays ("The Duchess of Malfi", "The White Devil") are known for their 'blood and gore', which is humorously referred to by the child saying that he enjoys "Titus Andronicus", and also saying of "Romeo and Juliet", when asked his opinion by the Queen, "I liked it when she stabbed herself." When the clown Will Kempe (Patrick Barlow) says to Shakespeare that he would like to play in a drama, he is told that "they would laugh at Seneca if you played it," a reference to the Roman tragedian renowned for his sombre and bloody plot lines