Judi Dench has shared that her sight loss has become so severe that she can’t leave the house without a guide as she would constantly worry that she would “fall over or walk into something.”
The 90-year-old Red Joan star first revealed that she was suffering from macular degeneration in her eyes back in 2012. This condition causes rapid central vision loss.
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She recently shared an update
The condition, which is the number one cause of sight loss in people over 50, has been progressively giving the actress a hard time.
She recently shared an update on her life with macular degeneration, saying she can no longer leave the house alone.
Dench needs a guide around
Giving the health update on the Fearless podcast by Trinny Woodall, Dench shared her current state, admitting, “Somebody will always be with me. I have to now because I can’t see and I will walk into something or fall over.”
The condition makes her anxious
The Casino Royale star shared that not being able to see makes her anxious about going to any event.
“I’m always nervous before going to something,” she said, before adding, “I have no idea why… I’m not good at being on my own at all, nor would I be now.”
Dench always has someone with her
“And fortunately, I don’t have to now because I pretend to have no eyesight,” the actress added.
Although the condition is difficult to live with, the 90-year-old actress is glad that it means she doesn’t have to spend time alone.
Her vision has been affecting work
Dench attended an event for Vision Foundation in 2021 during which she opened up about her own struggles with reading scripts due to her depleting vision.
“You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult,” Dench shared.
Dench had to adopt new methods
“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,” she explained.
“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!” the actress added.
Memorization isn’t ideal though
For Dench, memorization isn’t the ideal way to learn her lines, as she used to rely on her photographic memory to remember her script.
“I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page,” she told The Graham Norton Show.
Dench can remember what she sees
The actress explained that she used to be able to learn her lines in no time, but now struggles to remember them as she doesn’t read them herself.
“I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”
Many worry about her career
Since she revealed her diagnosis, many have wondered if the actress will take a break or retire from acting.
In fact, she’s only appeared in documentaries since her last big screen appearance in Allelujah in 2022. Dench has also said she doesn’t have upcoming projects.
The actress is not done yet
While losing her vision has made things difficult, Dench has shared that she doesn’t feel like she’d done with acting just yet.
“I don’t want to retire. 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.” she had told Louis Theorux on his BBC show.
