Judi Dench Facing Retirement Over Health Issue

Decades after Dame Judi Dench began her legendary film career, there is speculation about whether she has shot her last movie. The actor, who suffers from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), recently answered a question about any upcoming projects. Per the National Eye Institute, AMD is an eye disease that can impair central vision. It is caused by aging damage to the macula, the part of the eye that regulates sharp, straight-ahead vision.

“No no, I can’t even see,” she told a journalist at the Chelsea Flower Show, per The Mirror. Spirited, the 89-year-old’s last film, was released in 2022. Dench previously said she had difficulty seeing on set and had to memorize scripts. Asked if these remarks meant Dench had indeed retired from the movie business, her agent refused to elaborate. “Judi has nothing more to add than all she mentioned to the journalist,” they said.

In 2023, the star addressed her condition in more detail, telling the Suny Mirror’s Notebook magazine, “I mean, I can’t see on a film set anymore, and I can’t see to read, so I can’t see much.” Still, Dench explained how she felt about the situation, adding, “But, you know, you just deal with it. Get on.”

Despite her belief in “dealing with it,” the Oscar-winning actress confessed that her condition has been making it harder than ever to create new films. “It’s difficult if I have any length of a part. I haven’t yet found a way.”

However, she indicated that she does not intend to give up altogether. In light of her “photographic memory,” she believed her “many friends” could “teach [her] the script,” should the need arise. According to Woman & Home, Dench said in an interview she had previously given about her filming experience, “Because my eyesight is so bad now I can’t actually see very much and so I do go [to watch films] but a friend of mine usually has to say, ‘He’s kissing her now’ or ‘He’s walking away.’ So a lot of things I miss — it’s not so much fun.”

Even so, Dench expressed determination not to allow the condition to rob her of her career in an interview with Louis Theroux for the BBC (per The Mirror). “I’ve got to teach myself a new way of learning,” she told Theroux. “I’ve realized that I need to know where it is on the page. I’ll teach myself a way. I know I will, as long as I don’t trip overdoing it.”

At the annual event in Chelsea, Dench said she was just as busy as ever with projects. “Our book has come out (Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent), we’re going to Cheltenham Book Fair and then I’m going to do three shows with Gyles Brandreth,” she said. In 1964, Dench made her acting debut in The Third Secret. She went on to star in films including Shakespeare in Love, which won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as well as eight James Bond films, playing the role of M. With almost 100 films under her belt, she has been nominated for eight Academy Awards.