Judi Dench is one dedicated woman! Six weeks after having knee replacement surgery on her right knee, Dench swore she would be ready to walk down the red carpet for her new movie, “Philomena”. And she did!

“I have a completely new knee now. It’s brilliant,” the actress told the Daily Mirror on Friday. “When I had it done on September 6, I said to my surgeon ‘On October 16 I will walk up a red carpet unaided,’ and so I did. You set your mind to a goal and go for it.”

“I’m not feeling my age at all,” Dench said. “I am about 43, a tall willowy blonde 43-year-old with long legs. I don’t want to slow down at all. We don’t say the word retirement in our house. Old and retired are totally banned. Energy keeps me going.”

The only thing slowing this woman down is her eyesight. “Somebody reads the script to me and that’s the way I like it, regardless whether I can see or not,” she said. “It is much better having the story told to you, because ultimately that’s what the job is, telling an audience the story. I used to paint a lot and I used to sew all the time. That is the most irritating thing… I can’t do that any more. And I long for people to print the crossword larger because I love doing them. But it doesn’t affect acting apart from learning lines.”

She admits she loves her job and will continue working until she can’t anymore. “We are in the minority of people who are doing a job we chose to do and can make a living at,” she said. “Why aren’t we running to work every day?”

Image via Wikimedia Commons