It’s ‘Impossible’ for Me to Act Because of Sight Loss

Update the heart. Judi Dench said that his eyesight made it difficult to memorize the script for the new role.

“It has become impossible,” the Oscar winner, 88, explained on Friday, February 17, appearing in The Graham Norton Show. “And since I have a photographic memory, I had to find a machine that not only taught me lines but also told me where they appeared on the page.”

At cat The actress later said that she previously had no problem learning the entire script quickly. “It’s very easy for me to learn lines and remember them,” the English native said. “I can do everything Twelfth night now.”

The Tony Award winner hasn’t gone down slowly, however. She is currently promoting her film Hallelujahwhich is based on Alan Bennett‘s play of the same name. In 2021, he appeared in Kenneth BranaghAn Oscar-winning film Belfastearned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Grandma.

Dench announced in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration. “I don’t want this to be overblown,” he told Reuters in a statement at the time. “This situation is something that thousands and thousands of people around the world have to deal with. It’s something I’ve learned to deal with and adapt to – and it won’t blind me.

Nearly 10 years later, he opened up about how he adapted to his situation, learning to memorize the lines through repetition.

“You find a way to solve and solve very difficult things,” he said during a February 2021 charity event for London’s Vision Foundation. “I have to find another way to learn lines and things, which is to have my friends repeat it over and over again. So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope people don’t notice that all the lines are not have hope!

Despite the difficulties, the Shakespeare in Love The actress quipped that her condition sometimes leads to some funny moments. “I did it Winter Tales with Ken Branagh a few years ago, playing Paulina, and after we had been running for three weeks or so… he said to me – I had a long speech at the end – he said, ‘Judi, if you say so. talk about eight feet to the right, you will say it is for me and not for [proscenium] arch,” Dench recalled. “I trusted people to tell me!”