Judi Dench has had a lot of admirers over the years, and one of them says he wants to find a way to film a love story with her due to his longtime admiration.

Dustin Hoffman said recently that the two of them might have had a relationship had they met earlier in life, and even confessed as much to the Dame.

“I said to Judi, ‘If I met you then, I wouldn’t have let you get away’. There must be a way to do a love story where we meet in our 20s but yet we’re acting as we are now,” Hoffman said in an interview.

The duo recently co-starred in Esio Trot for BBC One, which will be released at Christmastime, and have been making the rounds on talk shows to promote it. Recently, they stopped by the Graham Norton Show, where they locked lips during a conversation about kiss cams.

Dame Dench recently received the worldwide contribution award from Bafta, which was presented by Hoffman, and said she was overwhelmed to be recognized by the group. She was joined by fellow winners Emma Watson and Robert Downey Jr., who took home awards for British artist of the year and the Stanley Kubrick Award for excellence in film, respectively.

“I’m rather overwhelmed by the award, because I didn’t ever expect to have a film career at all,” she said.