Macular degeneration has robbed Dame Judi Dench of so much eyesight that she cannot perform, read or even accurately recognize people on the street, she revealed Thursday.

“I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play anymore. I can’t do a film anymore. I can’t read anymore,” the 91-year-old Oscar-winning British actress told “Today” on BBC Radio 4. “So you’ve got to adjust to all that, and make allowances for it. And just get on and don’t think about it too much.”

Dench relies now on memory to fill in visual gaps, she said, using her beloved bluebells as an example because she can no longer see the color blue.

“They said this summer was absolutely sensational with bluebells; I couldn’t see one,” Dench said. “But I know what my trees look like, and part of it is in my memory, and part of it is about hopefully what I can make out.”

The update came after host Emma Barnett asked if there was anything “good” Dench could recommend about aging.

“Rubbish,” the theater and film doyenne replied. “There’s nothing to say for it at all. Nothing at all.”

The key is to never let go of the impetus to do things, she added, then noted that being unable to see is “a whole other ball game.”

Dench was first diagnosed in 2012 with macular degeneration, a retinal disease that erodes one’s central vision and is a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over 65. At the time she said she was doing everything in her power to preserve her eyesight. In 2023 she said that she could no longer memorize lines because she relied for many years on her photographic memory to learn them. Last year she revealed that she could no longer attend events unaccompanied.

That has not dimmed her joy, however; she has simply found other avenues to live and express it. Unable to paint watercolors or carve soapstone as she once did, Dench enjoys tearing paper into animal shapes and challenging those around her to do the same, noted her close friend and collaborator, fellow actor Brendan O’Hea, who was by her side.

“I know it gets you down, but you don’t allow it to defeat you,” he said.

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