Oscar Winner Dench Can No Longer See on Movie Sets

Oscar-winning actor Judi Dench said a degenerative eye condition has made it difficult for her to read scripts or see on film sets.

Dench, 88, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, told the Daily Mirror on Sunday that it's difficult to learn lines.

"I can't see on a film set anymore," Dench said. "And I can't see to read, so I can't see much. But, you know, you just deal with it. Get on."

Dench said she is still hoping to continue acting, but that she may need to find new ways to learn her lines.

"It's difficult for me if I have any length of a part," she said. "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."

Despite the challenges she faces, Dench added that she is determined to work "as much as I can."

In an interview with "The Graham Norton Show" earlier this year, Dench said that learning lines had become "virtually impossible."

"Normally, somebody could just teach you the lines, and goodness knows that's happened before, but now I've just found I have a photographic memory," she said, according to CNN. 

Dench said she can recite the entirety of William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night."

When Dench initially revealed her diagnosis, she assured the public that it was something that she had "learned to cope with." Her remarks came in response to speculation at the time that she was going blind. 

"In response to the numerous articles in the media concerning my eye condition — macular degeneration — I do not wish for this to be overblown," Dench said in a statement to Reuters.

"This condition is something that thousands and thousands of people all over the world are having to contend with. It's something that I have learned to cope with and adapt to, and it will not lead to blindness."

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