Judi Dench says her failing eyesight means she can no longer act
Battling a progressive eye disease, an Oscar-winning former James Bond star says the condition has left acting a struggle — sometimes downright impossible.
Here we go, then. Judi Dench — yes, the legendary Dame herself, M from the Bond films, no less — has opened up about her eyesight getting so bad, she simply can’t do another film or stage play. If you’ve watched any British film from, well, the last half-century, you know just how much that means. She was chatting on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and, I’ve got to say, it was about as candid as you’ll ever hear from a screen icon of her calibre.
“I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more. I can’t read any more.”
The diagnosis and what it means
Dench has something called age-related macular degeneration (AMD). She got the diagnosis in 2012, so she’s been dealing with it for years, but it’s only got worse. AMD is a bit of a cruel one — it knocks out your central vision, so reading or recognising faces goes from effortless to downright tricky. She now admits she sometimes mistakes random people for those she actually knows. That’s surprisingly relatable, even if you’re not a Dame.
She explained on the programme about dealing with her eyesight: “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.”
If you’re not familiar, Dench isn’t just ‘the one from Bond’. She’s an honest-to-god Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love), and has her name all over the West End and Shakespearean theatre. Not many can say they’ve played M in eight Bond films, but she did; from GoldenEye in 1995 to Skyfall in 2012.
Judi Dench has played M in eight James Bond films, beginning with GoldenEye in 1995.
There’s no sugar-coating it — Dench says her eyesight has reached the point where scripts are out of the question, and spotting who’s who is a daily nightmare. No more films, no more stage. But as she put it herself, there’s not much for it but to adapt and crack on, which is about as British a response as you’ll get.