Dame Judi Dench Admits She Copes With Aging By Pretending To Be 56

Dame Judi Dench, known for her roles in the James Bond films and movies like Pride and Prejudice, recently spoke about aging, her health, and how both have affected her acting career. Judi, who is turning 89 in December, said she pretends to be 56 to deal with getting older.

The Academy Award winner confirmed she would not stop acting. Judi revealed she was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a 2012 interview with Daily Mail. The condition, which her mother also suffered from, makes it hard for her to read scripts.

Playing younger despite aging

Unlike most celebrities, Judi does not keep to any anti-aging routines; instead, she just pretends to be thirty-two years younger. “We’ve got to keep going and not think of age too much. You have to think you are about 56. Also, I don’t make a point of keeping fit. I am very bad at that,” she said.

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Due to her declining eyesight, she now requires help from friends or her daughter Finty and asks her agent to read scripts. “I can’t read scripts anymore because of the trouble with my eyes. And so somebody comes in and reads them to me, like telling me a story,” she said. “The most distressing thing is in a restaurant in the evening I can’t see the person I’m having dinner with.”

Judi has no plans to retire

Despite aging and struggling to see, Judi has no plans to retire yet. “I don’t want to retire. I’m not doing much at the moment because I can’t see. It’s bad,” she said, adding that she now needs help cutting her food while eating.

The actress remains resilient as she finds ways to manage her health and keep working. “I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things,” she said in 2021. “I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!”