Photo: Max Mumby/Getty Images
Judi Dench said a degenerative eye condition has made it so that she can no longer read or perform. In 2012, Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, which affects a person’s central vision and is the leading cause of vision loss in older adults, per the National Eye Institute. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today, the 91-year-old actress said that she copes with the loss of her vision by not thinking about it “too much.”
“I can’t be on stage,” Dench said in an interview promoting her memoir Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? “I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more. I can’t read any more.” The actress said that she couldn’t see the interviewer’s face “at all.” Dench’s condition means that she occasionally goes up to the wrong person and gives them “an enormous hug” before realizing her mistake and apologizing.
“You’ve got to adjust to all that and you make allowances for it and just get on,” Dench said. “And don’t think about it too much.” The Oscar winner said that aging in general is “rubbish” and that “there’s nothing to say for it at all.” Her advice? “Don’t think about it too much and just keep on trying to do the roller skates and whatever.”
Will do, Dame Judi.
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