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Judi Dench shared in a new interview that she "can't recognize anybody now" amid her eye condition
"I can't see the television. I can't see to read," the 90-year-old actress said
The Oscar winner first revealed in 2012 that she was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration
Judi Denchis sharing an update about her life with a degenerative eye condition.
The 90-year-old actress first revealed in 2012 that she was diagnosed with macular degeneration afterspeculation about her eyesight. The condition causes blurred vision or reduced central vision and is common among people over the age of 50, per theMayo Clinic.
Now, in a new interview withITV News, Dench said she "can't recognize anybody now."
"I can't see anymore," she said. "I can't see the television. I can't see to read."
The Oscar winner was joined during the interview byIan McKellen, her formerMacbethcostar, and she told the 86-year-old actor that she could see his "outline" and could recognize him only because "I know you so well in yourMacbethscarf."
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McKellen then jokingly asked Dench, "But do you go up to total strangers and say, 'Lovely to see you again?' " She replied with a laugh, "Yes, sometimes."
Earlier this year, theSkyfallstar revealed that she could no longer go out alone due to her worsening vision.
"Somebody will always be with me," she said during an appearance on Trinny Woodall'sFearlesspodcast in January. "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 laugh.
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In February 2023, Dench spoke about how her vision was impacting her acting work, including remembering her lines.
"It has become impossible, and because I have a photographic memory, I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page," she said onThe Graham Norton Show. "I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole ofTwelfth Nightright now."
During a 2021 conversation benefiting the Vision Foundation, a sight loss charity based in London, Dench explained that she had taken to memorizing scripts since she stopped being able to read.
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"You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult," she said, perThe Guardian. "I've had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again. So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won't notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!"
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