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 be on stage. I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more. I can’t read any more,” the ۹۱-year-old actor told BBC Radio ۴’s Today programme on Thursday.
Dench, one of Britain’s most celebrated actors, was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in ۲۰۱۲. 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. “I go up to lots of the wrong people and give them an almost hug and say: ‘Oh sorry, didn’t realise’,” she said. 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 ۲۰۱۴, she said her failing eyesight made reading difficult, but insisted she would continue working for as long as she could.
By ۲۰۲۳, 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. “They said this summer was absolutely sensational with bluebells; I couldn’t see one,” she said. “But I know what my trees look like, and part of it is in my memory and part of it is about hopefully what I can make out.”
Asked about ageing, Dench replied: “There’s nothing to say for it at all. [I] don’t think about it too much.”
Despite the impact of her sight loss, she spoke warmly of her enduring love of Shakespeare’s poetry. “I am besotted by the sonnets, I just love them,” she said, describing their ability to capture human feelings simply. “It’s the rhythm of it. 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.
