The James Bond actress revealed in 2012 that her eyesight was deteriorating and that she suffers from age-related macular degeneration - a painless eye condition that generally leads to the gradual loss of central vision.
Now a crew member who worked with the 79-year-old on her latest movie Philomena, which also stars Steve Coogan, has said Dame Judi was 'inspirational' for how she coped with her failing sight.
He told The Sun: 'There were many times during filming where her sight was a problem for her recognising faces or objects, and often someone would jump in and help her move about so she didn't lose her footing.
'Judi was totally inspirational. She can't read her own scripts so her friends have to go through them with her or she'll learn them on a tape recorder.
'She was absolutely wonderful because she was totally open about her eye condition and would just ask for help when she needed it or apologise for not recognising someone.
'But she was always line-perfect.
'She may not be able to see her scripts but she delivers lines like no-one else.'
In 2012 Dame Judi admitted she could no longer read her scripts and that someone usually helps her.
She said: '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.
'I've got what my ma had, macular degeneration, which you get when you get old.
'I had wet in one eye and dry in the other and they had to do these injections and I think it's arrested it. I hope so.
'The most distressing thing is in a restaurant in the evening I can't see the person I'm having dinner with.'
However, she said it was a condition experienced by thousands of people all over the world and that it should not be blown out of proportion.
In March last year the actress revealed she takes memory supplements because she struggles to remember her lines.
Asked on Channel 4 News she said: ''I don't know how I retain it.
'I take that wonderful thing called Eye Q every morning because the Master of Magdalen College [Cambridge] told me about it ages ago and he said "Oh you should take that for your memory, it's wonderful" and I've taken it ever since.
'It is of course more difficult to remember, to retain something, but it's really a question of retaining the story.
'I don't know how I retain it.
The actress has been nominated for seven Academy Awards and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love in 1998.
Last year Bafta-winning actor Sir Michael Gambon admitted he was getting so old he forgot his lines and it was also rumoured that Jack Nicholson may retire because of the same reason.
Source: Daily Mail UK
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