Judi Dench Nearly Blind: What is Macular Degeneration?

Dame Judi Dench is nearly blind.

I can't read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes, the 77-year-old James Bond actress recently revealed to the Mirror.

Dench, winner of 10 BAFTAs, two Golden Globes and one Academy Award, has been diagnosed with macular degeneration -- damage to the retina -- which can lead to a loss of vision.

Somebody comes in and reads [scripts] to me, like telling me a story. It's usually my daughter or my agent or a friend and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind, she said, adding that her mother also had the same condition.

She is also assisted by lenses and glasses, and can see best when there is very bright light.

I can do a crossword if it's bright sunshine but if a cloud comes out the next minute, I can't see anything, according to Dench.

So what is macular degeneration?

According to the National Eye Institute, the disease is most commonly associated with people age 60 or older.

Medically known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, the condition affects the part of the eye that allows humans to see detail. AMD occurs in wet and dry forms.

Dench has both.

I had wet in one eye and dry in the other, and [doctors] had to do these injections and I think it's arrested it. I hope so, she said.

Dench, who has starred in more than 40 films, most recently played the mother of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the Clint Eastwood directed biopic, J. Edgar.

She can next be seen in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel alongside Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith. The film centers around a group of British retirees who live in an elderly home in India.

Dench's vision problem has not stopped the actress from plowing through the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, which is in production. Skyfall will mark Dench's seventh time playing the powerful head of intelligence, simply known as M.

In the Mirror interview, Dench assures fans that she won't be going anywhere anytime soon, even with her condition.

As long as there is a possibility of working, I'm not going to retire because if I retire nothing will work any more and it's hard enough as it is . . . I'm very conscious that I'm in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it -- how incredibly lucky, she said.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in theaters Feb. 24. Scroll down to watch the trailer.

Skyfall opens this fall.

For more of Dame Judi Dench's interview, visit the Mirror.

For more on age-related macular degeneration, visit the National Eye Institute's information page.