‘I don’t give a damn about getting older... I get snapped on the bus with no make-up on’: Helen Mirren on age and sexuality
The 70-year-old actress has four Emmy awards, five Baftas and two Golden Globes to her name, and received a damehood in 2003. In sum, she’s the epitome of a ‘national treasure’
‘I’m a woman that loves make-up and getting dressed up. As I get older, I don’t look as good, but I don’t give a damn,' said Helen Mirren who is 70
When Helen Mirren enters the room, it lights up.
Dressed in a bright orange Victoria Beckham dress and high heels, her skin tanned from a recent trip to Italy and her face radiant with health, she is, at 70, breathtakingly striking.
Which is exactly why L’Oréal Paris chose her to be the spokesperson of its Age Perfect skincare and Excellence hair colour ranges, with the aim of changing the way society considers older women.
The message is that women of a certain age aren’t invisible – they’re fabulous.
‘It’s great that the penny has finally dropped. Women of my age are financially secure, with the disposable income – and the desire – to buy beauty products, not just sink into invisibility,’ she says.
‘I’m a woman that loves make-up and getting dressed up. As I get older, I don’t look as good, but I don’t give a damn.
'There’s a huge pressure on young girls to look a certain way these days but, as I age, I’ve lost that incredible insecurity of youth.’
'There’s a huge pressure on young girls to look a certain way these days but, as I age, I’ve lost that incredible insecurity of youth,' said Helen
More slender than you’d imagine from her appearance in the 2003 hit film Calendar Girls, she carries herself with the regal poise of her role as Elizabeth II in the 2006 movie The Queen (for which she won an Oscar) – a part she has since reprised in Peter Morgan’s play The Audience on both the West End and Broadway stages.
Having also appeared in movies as diverse as Gosford Park, The Hundred-Foot Journey and this year’s Woman In Gold, she has four Emmy awards, five Baftas and two Golden Globes to her name, and received a damehood in 2003. In sum, she’s the epitome of a ‘national treasure’.
Yet she insists she’s not immune to moments of self-doubt.
‘I’m not a confident person. Actually, I think most people aren’t. The ones that seem most self-confident are often the least confident, so they put on a persona.’
So how does this lack of confidence marry with being idolised by women and fancied by men – at an age when many actresses succumb to the stereotype that they should retreat into the shadows?
‘It’s more than a little alarming because I know that eventually the attention and adulation will go. I’m surprised it hasn’t already. But it will, as I get older.’
Yet, what Helen always had – and still has – in bags, is sex appeal.
‘I’m not a confident person. Actually, I think most people aren’t. The ones that seem most self-confident are often the least confident, so they put on a persona,' said Helen
‘My identity as an actress was sexualised very early on. Looking back over the past 40 years, it’s been a hindrance as well as a help, and incredibly irritating at times,’ she says, remembering the Michael Parkinson interview of 1975 (when she was 30), in which he suggested her ‘physical attributes’ detracted from her ability to be a ‘serious actress’.
Born in Chiswick in 1945, she was originally named Helen Lydia Mironoff, reflecting the Russian aristocratic ancestry of her father, Vasiliy Petrovich, a viola player with the London Philharmonic who went on to become a taxi driver, then a civil servant.
The family – Helen’s mother, Kathleen Rogers, sister Katherine and brother Peter – anglicised their name in the 1950s.
'I know that eventually the attention and adulation will go. I’m surprised it hasn’t already,' said Helen
By the age of 13, Helen’s appetite for acting had been whetted by a part in an amateur production of Hamlet.
She joined the National Youth Theatre at 18, taking the role of Cleopatra in a 1965 production of Antony and Cleopatra at The Old Vic, and just two years later was accepted into the Royal Shakespeare Company where she played Cressida, Ophelia and Lady Macbeth among many other leading parts. And she went on to prove Parky totally wrong.
In 1991 the launch of the TV series Prime Suspect, with Helen as detective chief inspector Jane Tennison (a role she would play for the show’s 15-year run), marked a watershed for her career – and for women’s roles both on and off screen.
She’s been bucking feminine ideals, both professionally and personally, ever since.
‘When Prime Suspect first came out, it was about women in the workplace,’ she remembers.
‘A woman in her 50s leading a television series was surprising.
'There was a huge sigh of relief among professional women, because the show revealed the misogyny they’d had to endure but hadn’t been able to vocalise.’
More than two decades on from that first episode of Prime Suspect, Helen’s longevity as an actress owes something to her reputation for being remarkably un-diva-like.
‘I’m pretty laissez faire about my beauty routine. I climb on the bus and get snapped with no make-up on, and I rarely go to the hairdresser’s.
'When we were younger, my sister and I used to add highlights to each other’s hair using an old toothbrush!
'Yesterday, I whacked on L’Oréal Paris Excellence Age Perfect Hair Colour in Light Beige Blonde [shade 9.31] for 25 minutes, then washed it off – job done.’
She also maintains that the secret to her professional success is to keep learning.
‘The kids I work with, such as Sadie Sink and Elizabeth Teeter [the 13-year-old actresses who share the Broadway role of Young Elizabeth in The Audience], constantly teach me about acting.
'Just to see their commitment, their joy at doing it and their professionalism. They’re instinctive, they’re free.
'As an actor, you can become paralysed by your technique, but freedom is your goal and anyone who guides you towards that is a great teacher.’
'Growing old is not for pussies – you’ve got to have courage. But then, you’ve got to have courage in life anyway,' said Helen (pictured in her Oscar-winning role in The Queen, 2006)
Next January, we’ll see her take a more controversial role in the film Trumbo, about the 1940s Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (played by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston), who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for having communist sympathies.
As Hedda Hopper, the most famous Los Angeles gossip columnist of the time, and notorious for ruthlessly naming communist suspects, Helen’s character becomes entangled with the life of the protagonist.
‘I play a pretty appalling person but, of course, she thought she was right.
'She was the most powerful person in Hollywood at the time, because she had access to and control of the audience.’
Among the mountains of scripts she receives, it’s the characters that explore feminine strength in different guises that lure her.
‘It’s hard to break out of the traditional female roles – the housewife, the girlfriend, the victim.
At the Golden Globes in 2007 with her two Best Actress gongs for The Queen and Elizabeth I
'Because often what appears to be a strong character actually isn’t – it’s just a cipher. But when women complain about the paucity of roles for older women, I say put your energies into changing the way we view each other in real life – then the rest will follow.
'We female audiences have to take some responsibility for what emerges from the film industry and magazines. We have to look to ourselves.’
Helen, of course, knows a thing or two about magazine images.
She’s unlikely ever to shrug off that photograph of her aged 63 in a red bikini, taken in 2008 in Italy, which sparked a media sensation.
‘The thing is, no one wears one-pieces in Italy!’ she laughs.
‘It doesn’t matter how thin, big or old they are, they all wear bikinis.
'I think women should be free to wear whatever they want to.’
Italy is where she owns a house with her husband of 19 years, U.S. film director Taylor Hackford, and where she retreats from the world and her daily life in Manhattan’s East Village.
The pair married in 1997, 11 years into their relationship, when Helen was 52.
‘I think marrying late is a very good idea – it worked out for me. In general, I’d say it’s not a great idea to marry young. And it’s a really terrible idea to get married for the frock.
'I was lucky because I’d worn so many incredible dresses as costumes. But girls nowadays have a princess complex – they’re longing to have the gorgeous dress, be the centre of attention and live the dream for 24 hours,’ she continues.
‘At 70 years old, if I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to use the words “f*** off” much more frequently.
'It annoys me when I see men with an arm slung round their girlfriend’s shoulders. It’s like ownership. Of course, when you’re young, you want the guy to take your hand and look after you.
Helen with her husband of 19 years, U.S. film director Taylor Hackford
'But when I see girls being leaned on, I want to say, “Tell him to get his damned arm off your shoulder.”’
This tension between independence and subordination is, she says, characteristic of our age.
‘Women are still toddlers in this modern world, trying to find their position in the age of sexual liberation, birth control, education and financial independence.
'We’re still finding our path. And yes, we’re making a lot of mistakes along the way.’
Age and sexuality is another element of human identity that women are still figuring out. Never one to shirk controversy, Helen recently smashed another societal taboo by saying her sex life has got better with age.
‘I always think of this scientific survey carried out among American college kids in the 1960s,’ she says.
‘They were all happy to talk about their own sex life. Then they were asked about their parents’ sex lives – and oh, they were horrified!
'The young always want to feel as though they’re the ones to do everything first. But naturally, it’s all been done before.’
Helen has no children of her own, but with young step-grandchildren via Hackford’s sons (Rio and Alexander) from previous marriages, I wonder if she sees herself as a role model in her own family, as she is to women the world over?
‘I honestly don’t know what the children think of me – because I come and go in their lives.
'I’m not baking them cookies on weekends! I waft in and out, and I think they understand that I’m not the normal sort of grandmother,’ she muses.
‘All I’d say to them is that ageing is an adventure. It’s a frightening adventure because health becomes an issue.
'Growing old is not for pussies – you’ve got to have courage. But then, you’ve got to have courage in life anyway.’
And, as she slips away to her next meeting, if there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Helen Mirren is infinitely courageous – and a great advert for ageing in style.
Helen is a spokesperson for L’Oréal Paris Excellence Age Perfect Hair Colour, available nationwide; loreal-paris.co.uk
Helen’s hot list
READING
All The Light We Cannot See, the award-winning novel by Anthony Doerr.
TOP DESIGNERS
Victoria Beckham and Dolce & Gabbana – my favourite guys.
BEAUTY HERO
I love cleansers and body creams that make me feel clean and fresh, but my absolute favourite is L’Oréal Paris Age Perfect Classic Night Cream.
ON THE iPOD
An album by Carlos Gardel – I downloaded it yesterday.
MANTRA FOR LIFE
‘Carry on!’
