Dame Judi Dench has revealed that a degenerative eye condition has left her unable to see well on sets or able to read scripts. “Get on. It’s difficult for me if I have any length of a part,” she said to the Daily Mirror’s Notebook Magazine.,“I haven’t yet found a way. Because I have so many friends who will teach me the script. But I have a photographic memory.”
Dench revealed in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the most common cause of vision loss for those 50 and older. Although it does not cause full blindness, it can lead to extreme blurriness in the central vision, leading those who suffer with it unable to read and impaired in daily life.
Known best for her Oscar-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, Dench has been an actress since 1957. Since starting in theater, mostly doing Shakespeare, she has become an 8-time Oscar nominee and won a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, and seven Olivier Awards. She has overcome the stigma of women aging in the spotlight and continued to book blockbuster roles.
Dench says that despite the condition, she will still try to work “as much as [she] can.”
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