The Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench has tragically announced that she’s gone blind at the age of 90.
‘I Can’t See Anymore…’
Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in 2012. This condition can cause permanent and rapid central vision loss. It is also the number one cause of vision loss in people over 50.
Dench has admitted that her eyesight has detoriated so much that she can’t watch television, see to read or recognize faces. She confirmed this while being interviewed by ITV News alongside her friend and colleague of 50 years Sir Ian McKellen. The two acting legends are currently promoting a new Shakespeare teaching resource.
During their interview, Dench was asked why she hasn’t appeared on camera as much in recent years.
“No, because I can’t see anymore” she explained to ITV News.
McKellan chimed in to say that “we can see you.” To this, Dench replied, “Yes and I can see your outline and I know you so well with your Macbeth scarf. But I can’t recognize anyone.”
“People think ‘oh get her, she’s got very grand,’ but it’s because I can’t see,” she lamented. “I can’t see the television, can’t see to read.”
“Do you go up to total strangers and just say to them ‘lovely to see you again,'” McKellan asked.
“Yes sometimes!” Dench replied with a laugh.
Dench Can’t Read Scripts
Back in 2021, Dench revealed that reading scripts had become a struggle for her.
“You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult,” she said at the time.
“I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again,” Dench added. “So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless.”
Dench later revealed on The Graham Norton Show that she’d previously relied on her photographic memory to learn lines. Needless to say, this has made learning lines very difficult for her these days.
“I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page,” Dench stated. “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them, I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”
Dench Doesn’t ‘Want To Retire…’
As of 2022, Dench was determined not to give up.
“I don’t want to retire,” she told the BBC. “I’m not doing much at the moment because I can’t see. It’s bad. I have a photographic memory so a person saying to me, ‘This is your line…’ I can do that .”
By May of 2024, however, Dench admitted that she has no future projects in the pipeline. When asked if she has any acting jobs in the works, she replied, “No, no, I can’t even see!”
This has clearly been a very difficult experience for a brilliant talent like Dench. Please join us in saying a prayer for her.
God bless you, Dame Judi Dench!