Judi Dench has said she can no longer perform on stage or in films because of her deteriorating eyesight, more than a decade after revealing she had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration. I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more.
I can’t read any more,” the 91-year-old actor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday. Dench, one of Britain’s most celebrated actors, was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012. The condition causes progressive sight loss and has increasingly affected her ability to work, as well as her independence in everyday life.
She described how she can no longer read or recognise faces. She also told the presenter Emma Barnett: “I can’t see your face at all.” Dench’s comments mark a stark development in a gradual deterioration that has affected her ability to work for years. In 2014, she said her failing eyesight made reading difficult, but insisted she would continue working for as long as she could.
By 2023, she said she could no longer see on film sets and relied on friends to teach her scripts, learning lines through repetition. Last year, she revealed that she could no longer go out alone because she feared walking into objects or falling over. The actor also told Barnett of her sadness at no longer being able to see bluebells.
It’s the rhythm of your heart. It’s the way he’s summed up so simply the way that any of us feel about, well, anything.” Dench was speaking before the publication of her memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with the theatre director Brendan O’Hea. Dench’s career spans more than seven decades.
She won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love and became internationally renowned as M, James Bond’s boss, appearing in eight films in the franchise. Her stage work included celebrated Shakespearean roles such as Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
