Dame Judi Dench Says She Can No Longer Read Scripts: ‘It's Become Impossible’

The 88-year-old actress says she has a "photographic memory."

Feb 17, 2023 - 21:09

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Dame Judi Dench Says She Can No Longer Read Scripts: ‘It's Become Impossible’

Dame Judi Dench now finds it "impossible" to read scripts.

The 88-year-old actress is a guest on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show and expresses her difficulty with reading scripts due to her deteriorating eyesight.

Dench says she has a "photographic memory" and wants to find a machine that is able to teach her her lines and also locate them on the page.

The Oscar winner previously revealed she has macular degeneration, which causes the gradual loss of vision. In 2012, she told ET about her condition, after a report claimed she was fighting to save her eyesight.

"In response to the numerous articles in the media concerning my eye condition - macular degeneration- I do not wish for this to be overblown," she said. "This condition is something that thousands and thousands of people all over the world are having to contend with...and it's something I have learnt to cope with and adapt to -- and it will not lead to blindness."

A decade later, Dench tells host Graham Norton things have changed. "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," she explains. "I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”

Speaking about her film, Allelujah, an adaptation of Alan Bennett’s 2018 play of the same name, Dench praises it as "a big cheer for the NHS," the U.K.'s National Health Service.

The film focuses on the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital that when threatened with closure fights back by shocking the local community. The hospital invites a news crew to film the preparations for a concert honoring its most distinguished nurse.

"We have to be reminded of that, I think," she says of the NHS' hard work. "It has come out at a very good time. The cast is wonderful, and it was heaven to do."

The Graham Norton Show airs Fridays on BBC One and iPlayer.

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