Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench recently opened up about her struggle with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) revealing that she no longer can see on movie sets. Dench spoke with the UK newspaper Daily Mirror’s Notebook magazine and said that it’s becoming very difficult to learn her lines. “I mean I can’t see on a film set anymore,” said the actress. “And I can’t see to read. So I can’t see much. But you know you just deal with it. Get on. It’s difficult for me if I have any length of a part. I haven’t yet found a way. Because I have so many friends who will teach me the script. But I have a photographic memory.” Dench revealed in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with AMD, but said she will try to work “as much as I can” despite the set backs. Earlier this year, Dench told “The Graham Norton Show” that learning her lines has become more and more difficult, saying it’s “become impossible.” She said, “Normally somebody could just teach you the lines, and goodness knows that’s happened before, but now I’ve just found I have a photographic memory.”

Dench won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in the 1998 film “Shakespeare in Love.” She famously won the Academy Award for her role as Elizabeth I where she only had eight minutes of screen time. Dench, who is said to be one of Britain’s greatest actresses, has won two Golden Globes along with several British Academy Film Awards. The actress told Notebook that she tries to continue living each day to the fullest. “I have an irrational fear of boredom,” she said. “That’s why I now have this tattoo that says carpe diem [seize the day]. That’s what we should live by.” Dench got the tattoo in 2016 as a gift from her daughter. At the time, Dench told Surrey Life “That’s my motto: ‘Seize the day.’ Finty (her daughter) gave it to me for my 81st birthday. She’s wonderful with surprises.”