Judi Dench losing vision, finds it hard to watch films

DAME Judi Dench is finding it difficult to watch her own movies. The 82-year- old actress has been battling with macular degeneration, which causes a person to experience a gradual loss of vision, and admits it is “not so much fun” to watch films as she misses some parts of the movie. Speaking at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California, where she was honoured for her long career, she said: “I do go (to the movies) but a friend of mine usually has to say, ‘ He’s kissing her now’ or, ‘He’s walking away. A lot of things I miss. It’s not so much fun.”

It comes after Judi admitted she struggles to read the scripts at time and has to have it printed in extra large font but insists it won’t make her give up on her career.

She explained: “I just want to go on being mobile really and able to do things. I’m not going to be beaten by my eyes for instance.

“I have macular degeneration, which means treatment every six weeks, but you just have to settle for it. On my scripts, my font is point- size 22, so you can imagine...if we’re doing a sonnet of 14 lines, all the others will have one page and I’ll have 14. It’s ridiculous, it’s a farce, but I’m not going to give in.”

Judi also finds it very therapeutic when she paints.

She shared: “I paint a lot and now I find it very, very difficult because if I look at something and then look back here, my eyes don’t adjust quickly enough to actually transfer that.

“Then I thought, ‘ That’s what’s painting is about. You should paint what you see.’ And therefore it doesn’t matter - don’t translate it literally, translate it in the only way you can. It’s a different system.”