Judi Dench Reveals 'Can't Recognize Anybody' due to Worsening Eyesight

Academy and Tony Award-winning actress Judi Dench shared that she “can’t recognize anybody” due to her eye condition, which has led to a loss of sight and her stepping back from the stage and screen.

In a recent interview with ITV, Dench opened up about why she’s stepped away from acting, noting: “I can’t see anymore. I’ve got, you know, that thing.”

The veteran actress' longtime collaborator and friend Ian McKellen, with whom she starred in Macbeth in 1979, appeared alongside her in the interview, joked that her vision hasn’t stopped the audience from seeing her.

Dench then responded, “Yes, and I can see your outline, and I know you so well. But I can’t recognize anybody now. … I can’t see the television, I can’t see to read.”

The "Notes on a Scandal" star added, “I can’t see the television, I can’t see to read.”

The "X-Men" alum then jokingly asked Dench if she ever goes up to “total strangers [to] say, ‘Lovely to see you again,'” to which she laughed and answered, “Sometimes!”.

This isn’t the first time Dench opened up about her sight. She has been open about her diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration, a degenerative eye condition that affects the central part of the retina and results in central vision distortion or loss, since 2012.

“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,” Dench said. “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of ‘Twelfth Night’ right now.”

She hinted at her retirement last year, and the year prior, said, “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.”

Her most recent credits include a cameo in the 2022 Apple TV+ Christmas musical comedy "Spirited," starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. The "Belfast" star also appeared in a recent holiday-themed advert in the U.K. She and McKellen are currently backing an initiative to revitalize the William Shakespeare curriculum taught at English schools, using rehearsals as teaching tools to invigorate understanding of the Bard.

Despite the struggles, Dench remains in good humor about her situation and the sometimes awkward moments that occur as a result. She recalled, “I was doing the ‘Winter’s Tale’ with Kenneth Branagh a couple of years ago, playing Paulina, and after we had been running for three weeks or so at the Garrick he said to me — I have a long speech at the end — he said: ‘Judi, if you were to say that speech about eight feet to your right, you’d be saying it to me and not to the pros.’ I rely on people to tell me!”.