Judi Dench: A Timeless Presence in Cinema
British-born Judi Dench, a figure that has occupied a place of high esteem in the world of acting for several decades, is often regarded as a legend.
Spanning over six decades, Dench’s illustrious career has led many to consider her a national gem. Despite the praise and adulation, she refuses to accept such a label. She told People, “It’s an awful label. So musty, so dull. Plus, it puts me in the box of being an 86-year-old woman. Whereas, in my imagination, I’m 6ft tall, slender, and roughly 39.”
The 88-year-old actress has been grappling with health problems that impair her vision, hindering her ability to read her lines. Specifically, Dench has been diagnosed with macular degeneration, a condition that affects central vision, potentially causing blurry vision or even a blind spot in the center of the visual field. During her appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Dench admitted that her vision has deteriorated over the years.
She described the challenges of memorizing her lines, stating, “It has become unfeasible, and because I have a photographic memory, I need a device that not only helps me memorize my lines but also informs me of their placement on the page.”
Reacting to the numerous media reports about her eye condition, she told ET, “I don’t want this to be exaggerated. This is a condition that countless people around the globe are dealing with… and it’s something I’ve learned to manage and adapt to — and it will not result in blindness.”
When asked about her eyesight in 2022, she shared with Louis Theroux, “Bad. Quite bad. Bad enough that you’re quite blurry. You’re just slightly blurry.”
Despite her struggles with reading lines, Dench shows no intention of slowing down and doesn’t contemplate retirement from acting. “I don’t want to retire. I’m not doing much at the moment because I can’t see. It’s bad,” she stated. “You find a way to maneuver and overcome the things you find very challenging. I’ve had to find a new method of learning lines, which involves my close friends repeating them to me 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 utterly hopeless!”
Dench faced a heart-wrenching loss in 2001 when she lost her husband of 30 years, Michael Williams, the true love of her life. Recalling the loss and her late husband, she said, “He was the most unselfish man, and he wouldn’t ever attribute that to anything that might come between us… Oh, how he used to make me laugh. He used to make me roar with laughter.”
Despite never imagining she could find love again after his passing, in 2010, she found companionship with conservationist David Mills. “I wasn’t even prepared to be ready for it. It was very, very gradual and mature. It’s just fantastic,” she told The Times in 2014.