Dame Judi Dench Can No Longer See While Filming, Relies on Friends to ‘Teach’ Her Scripts

Dame Judi Dench's eyesight is continuing to decline. The 88-year-old silver screen legend reveals she can no longer "see on a film set anymore."

"And I can’t see to read, so I can’t see much," she told The Mirror.

Although her declining eyesight has made it more difficult for the Skyfall actress to learn film scripts, she is determined not to let it get in the way of work.

"You just deal with it. Get on. It’s difficult for me if I have any length of a part. 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," Dench shared.

Dench, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in 2012, noted her deteriorating eyesight has taken her some time to come to terms with.

"It’s the most terrible shock to the system. Ghastly. It’s terrible to be so dependent on people," she shared.

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According to the National Eye Institute, age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, doesn't cause complete blindness, but it diminishes a person's central vision, making it harder to see faces, read, drive or do other close-up work.

The Cats star previously addressed her condition during the 2021 Vision Foundation benefit.

"You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult. 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," Dench said, according to The Guardian.

"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!" the Oscar-winning star added.