Judi Dench has said an eye condition left her unable to read or perform on stage, more than a decade after she was first diagnosed.
“I can’t be on stage anymore. I can’t do a play anymore. I can’t make a film anymore. I can’t read anymore,” Dench, 91, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” show on Thursday.
The Oscar-winning British actor was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in 2012, an eye disease that leaves affected people unable to see directly in front of them.
In 2024, she told NPR’s “All Things Thought” that her condition had worsened and affected her ability to work.
“And aside from the fact that I can go right past an old friend, I can play him. And it doesn’t matter — in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter,” she told “CBS Mornings” at the time.
She told the BBC she had to “take into account” her condition, which had worsened, and “just carry on and not think about it too much”.
Asked by the BBC’s Emma Barnett about the evolution of aging, Dench responded with one word: “Waste.”
“There’s nothing to say at all,” she continued. She added that she doesn’t think much about the concept of aging.
Dench, one of Britain’s most revered actors, has a decades-long career spanning film and theatre. She is well known for her work in several Shakespearean plays.
When asked what advice she would give to herself, she said that taking risks is a good thing.
“If people say, ‘Oh, that’s so much like you, you have to play it,’ no, that’s not the one to play,” she said. “For me, it’s still scary, but that’s part of it.”
“Use that energy, but never take it for granted. (…) It’s always a work in progress. Always,” she added.
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