Beloved veteran actress Judi Dench shared the grim reality of her failing eyesight, a condition that has forced her to step away from acting.
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“No, you don’t [see me on camera], because I can’t see anymore,” she candidly told an ITV News reporter during a recent interview. Dench appeared with her longtime friend and collaborator, Ian McKellen, with whom she starred in a 1979 production of Macbeth.
McKellen joked that they could see her, and Dench responded, “Yes, and I can see your outline, and I know you so well, in your Macbeth scarf. But I can’t recognize anybody now.”
“I can’t see the television, I can’t see to read,” the Skyfall actress, who turns 91 on Dec. 9, added.
The Lord of the Rings alum quipped, asking Dench if she ever approaches “total strangers [to] say, ‘Lovely to see you again,’” to which she laughed and admitted, “Sometimes!”
Judi Dench Revealed Her Failing Eyesight Back in 2012
Dench, whose storied career spans from her iconic role in Shakespeare in Love to a cameo in the 2022 Apple TV+ Christmas musical comedy Spirited alongside Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, has been open about her diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration. This degenerative eye condition, which she revealed in 2012, affects the central part of the retina and can cause distortion or loss of central vision, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Earlier this year, on Trinny Woodall’s Fearless podcast, Dench revealed her failing eyesight prevents her from going out alone.
“Somebody will always be with me,” Dench admitted on the show. “I have to now because I can’t see, and I will walk into something or fall over.”
“I’m always nervous before going to something. I have no idea why… I’m not good at being on my own at all, nor would I be now. And fortunately, I don’t have to now because I pretend to have no eyesight,” she added with a chuckle.