Dame Judi Dench Opens Up About How Her Eyesight Loss Makes Acting Harder

Judi Dench is a living legend, and even though her movie career has been successful for many decades, it still shows no signs of slowing down even as the actress approaches 90. However, it’s no longer as easy as it used to be due to her eyesight loss.

Judi Dench -Says Her Photographic Memory Made Her A Great Actress

Judi Dench appeared on the recent episode of the Graham Norton show, alongside Hugh Jackman and other stars, and opened up about how her deteriorating eyesight makes acting that much harder for her.

The Friday episode saw the 88-year-old “Iris” star talk about how her degenerative eye condition affects her acting. “It has become impossible and because I have a photographic memory, I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page,” the Oscar winner said. “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”

Luckily for fans, the actress is not going to let it slow her down or push her into retirement, even though she’s been battling macular degeneration for over a decade. Last year, she entertained New Year revelers alongside singer Sharleen Spiteri with an impromptu rendition of ABBA’s “Waterloo” at a hotel in Scotland. Currently, she’s on the go promoting her new movie “Allelujah”, which is based on a 2018 Alan Bennett play set in a geriatric ward.

Judi Dench – On Learning To Live With Her Age-related Macular Degeneration

In a 2021 conversation benefiting the Vision Foundation – a sight loss charity based in London – Dench shared the new ways she’s found to learn her lines following her continual loss of eyesight.

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“You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult,” Dench said during the talk. “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. 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!”

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