Dame Judi Dench has said she is determined to continue acting despite her deteriorating eyesight.
The British icon of stage and screen, 86, spoke candidly with on Thursday about how she navigates her career, and what tricks she uses to make sure she’s able to prepare for a role.
She explained: ‘You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult.
‘You find a way of getting about’: Dame Judi Dench, 86, revealed in an interview on Thursday that she is determined to continue acting despite her deteriorating eyesight
‘I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again.
‘So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!’
RELATED ARTICLES
Share this article
Share
499 shares
Judi also reflected on doing the play The Winter’s Tale with Kenneth Branagh at the Garrick Theatre in 2015, where she accidentally said her lines while stood in the wrong place.
She explained her fellow thespian, 60, informed her she needed to be ‘eight feet to [her] right’ to be saying the lines to him, and Judi jokes she ‘relies’ on people to tell her where she needs to be standing so she can memorise the position.
Innovative: Judi said she focuses on ‘getting over’ her eyesight problems and learns her lines in new ways, like asking for friends to help her memorise them out loud (pictured in Blithe Spirit)
Stage: Judi also reflected on acting in The Winter’s Tale with Kenneth Branagh at the Garrick Theatre in 2015 (pictured), saying she ‘relied’ on the cast to tell her where to stand for a scene
Last month, Judi said she feels ‘lucky’ to have never seen the ‘other side’ of disgraced producer .
Weinstein, 68, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for third-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault following a high-profile court case last year.<br
Judi Slot OnlineJudi Slot Online spoke about her own experience of Weinstein, which she admitted was nothing but ‘charming’
Weinstein was the producer of Judi’s first big Hollywood film, Shakespeare In Love, which earned her the best supporting actress Oscar in 1998 for her role as Elizabeth I, despite spending a total of just eight minutes on screen.
When quizzed on whether Weinstein’s crimes ‘tainted’ her feelings about the film she told the publication they haven’t, because the ‘film is still the film’.
Judi also confessed she ‘doesn’t know’ if she misjudged him, and said: ‘He was a friend. He was a perfectly polite and funny and friendly person.
‘I never experienced Harvey in any other way than that. I knew nothing untoward about him at all. And nor was I warned. So of course I can judge him. But I never experienced that other side of him at all.’
The star previously discussed her close friendship the shamed entertainment figure during an interview in June 2019, almost a year before his sentencing.
Judi, who was also discussed Kevin Spacey, said she believes their art should be considered separately from their alleged crimes, but said she was ‘horrified’ by the allegations against Weinstein.
Breakout: Weinstein was the producer of Judi’s first big Hollywood film, Shakespeare In Love, which earned her the best supporting actress Oscar in 1998 for her role as Elizabeth I
Candid: When quizzed on whether Weinstein’s crimes ‘tainted’ her feelings about the film she told the publication they haven’t, because the ‘film is still the film’ (pictured in 2001)
‘Are we going to negate ten years at the Old Vic and everything that he did [Spacey as artistic director] – how wonderful he’s been in all those films?
‘Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced? You cannot deny somebody a talent. You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting [he was a murderer]. You might as well never have gone to see Noël Coward [accused of predatory behaviour].’
She called it a ‘moral maze’ and said she was worried about Spacey’s films being airbrushed out history, ‘while he’s on hold all the time. What kind of agony is that?’
A series of sexual assault accusations against Spacey led to his firing from House of Cards and his removal from the completed movie All the Money in the World, which was reshot with late actor Christopher Plummer.
Thoughts: Judi also previously discussed Kevin Spacey, saying she believes his art should be seen separately from his alleged crimes, the actor (pictured in 2019) has been accused of sexual assault
data-track-module=”am-external-links^external-links”>
Read more:
DM.later(‘bundle’, function()
DM.has(‘external-source-links’, ‘externalLinkTracker’);
);
