Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench has said her eyesight has left her unable to perform on stage or read, more than a decade after she was diagnosed. Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, a condition that affects her vision and has made even recognising faces extremely difficult. Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme, she said sadly: “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.” Her statement underlines the profound impact the disease has had on her professional and personal life, forcing her to fundamentally change the way she works and lives.
Macular degeneration, a progressive disease, has significantly affected her ability to carry out everyday tasks. She also revealed that her condition can lead to embarrassing encounters, saying she sometimes approaches the wrong people “and gives them an almost hug” before realising her mistake. This illustrates the challenges she faces in social interactions and the difficulty of clearly distinguishing people. Asked about ageing, Dench, who is 91, replied simply: “There’s nothing to say at all. I don’t think about it much.” This response reflects a pragmatic and calm approach to age, despite the health difficulties she faces.
Dench has enjoyed a career spanning more than seven decades and is one of Britain’s most celebrated actors, with extensive work in theatre, television and film. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth I in “Shakespeare in Love” in 1999, and became internationally known for her portrayal of “M”, James Bond’s boss. She made her debut in this role in “GoldenEye” in 1995, becoming the first woman to play this iconic character. However, her loss of sight has increasingly affected her ability to work, and the actress has previously spoken about the difficulties with her eyesight on film sets and when learning scripts, making the acting process far more challenging.
Despite her condition, she has continued to make public appearances and speak openly about adapting to life with deteriorating sight, stressing that “radio has always been important to me” as a way of staying connected to the world. During the interview, Dench recalled being invited to lunch by former MI6 chief Sir David Spedding, describing the experience as “very exciting”. When she asked where her driver should drop her off, she was told: “No, no, we’ll send a car, we’ll come and pick you up.” However, she arrived around 20 minutes late after the driver tried to find her house. “I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so late because your driver couldn’t find my house.’ I liked that very much,” she recalled with humour, showing her ability to find the positive even in unexpected situations.
Asked whether she had any thoughts on who should play the next Bond, she simply replied “no”, indicating she had no specific preference. Dench also discussed meeting American actor Sidney Poitier, who became the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor in 1964. She was appearing in “Amy’s View” in New York when Poitier came backstage after a performance. She recalled that director Richard Eyre was in her dressing room, giving her notes, when there was a knock at the door. Dench said she felt as if she was in a wind tunnel when Poitier walked in, adding: “It was thrilling.” Asked what he had said to her, Dench replied: “Not much, a little bit with my mouth open. Very charming. Very tall.” This shows her deep admiration and sense of awe for Poitier, a legend of cinema.
The conversation then turned to Dench’s love of Shakespeare. She recalled seeing her brother play King Duncan in “Macbeth” when she was nine years old, and said that moment ignited her passion for the playwright. “He came on and said, ‘What bloody man is that?’ I thought, ‘Oh God, this is for me’. He said ‘bloody’, did you hear him say it?” She also admitted to being “enthralled” by Shakespeare’s sonnets: “I just love them.” “It’s their rhythm. It’s the rhythm of your heart,” she added, “it’s the way he has so simply summed up the way each of us feels about, well, everything.” This reflects her deep and personal connection to Shakespeare’s work, which she regards as a source of inspiration and a profound understanding of life.
Taken from BBC News