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Dame Judi Dench (pictured in 2022) has revealed she can no longer work after deterioration of her eyesight. (Reuters: Mike Blake)
In short:
British actress Dame Judi Dench has revealed her eyesight has deteriorated to the point she can no longer act on stage or in films.
Dame Judi, 91, has had macular degeneration for more than a decade.
The change in her condition comes after an award-winning, seven-decades long career in stage, film and television.
British actress Judi Dench has said her eyesight has deteriorated to the point she can no longer act on stage or in films.
Dame Judi, 91, has had macular degeneration, a chronic eye disease, for more than a decade.
"I can't be on stage, I can't do a play anymore, I can't do a film anymore, I can't read anymore," she said.
Judi Dench's acting career spans seven decades. (Reuters: Toby Melville)
"So you've got to adjust to all that, and make allowances for it and just get on and don't think about it too much."
She said she could no longer recognise faces, meaning she often nearly hugged strangers, mistaking them for people she knew.
Dame Judi has had a seven-decade career on stage, film and television, receiving critical acclaim, including an Oscar, a Tony and seven Olivier awards.
Judi Dench portrayed the character M in eight James Bond, several with Daniel Craig. (Reuters: Andrew Winning)
The popular star appeared as the character M in eight James Bond films.
She has played many of Shakespeare's major roles, including Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, and spoke of her enduring love for his poetry.
"I am besotted by the sonnets, I just love them," she said.
"The way he summed up so simply the way that any of us feel about, well, anything."
Judi Dench in her first role in Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, in 1957. (AFP: Wolf Tracer Archive/Photo12)
Reflecting on her career, Dench said she had taken risks in choosing roles, adding that performing was always a daunting experience.
"For me, always frightening, but that's part of it," she said. "It's part of what that fear generates, an energy that you can use up, use the energy.
"It's always 'work in progress', always."
Reuters