Fashions News

Helen Mirren talks to More magazine about love, movies, aging gracefully, and reveals the sex appeal that just won’t quit.

Here’s what Dame Helen had to say in her interview, on newsstands March 18th:

On fame: “What I have is very benign, very sweet. Often it goes straight over my head. There are only two really tough times to be recognized: One is when you’re waiting for your luggage in the airport, and the other is when you are standing in line for the ladies’. Then you’re a captive and you either give up your place in line or you pretend that you don’t want your luggage after all. And then the embarrassment of my scruffy luggage when it does come out.’”

On sexuality and power: “I’m still trying to wriggle out from under that label. Sexuality for girls is so complex and tricky. I was never beautiful, but as a young woman, beautiful or not is sort of irrelevant. Being a sexual object is mortifying and irritating, yet it’s giving you power—an awful power that you’ve done nothing to deserve, a powerless power. I think some young women fall in love with that power, and it’s really objectifying. And when it starts falling away, it’s an incredible relief.”

On her opinion on Americans: “I think Americans are a little parochial, a little naïve. Naïveté can be a good thing as well, all that innocence and idealism, not like those cynical Europeans: ‘Oh, it’ll never work!’ But sometimes Americans show a terrible cruelty toward their own people, like what happened post-Katrina, in the wealthiest country in the world. Which is extraordinary to me.”

On aging and still working: “I’ve never been worried about getting older, but I do recognize that I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’ve been able to keep working and working, how cool is that? I’m still here, and I’m surging ahead at the moment. But that happened because I’ve always thought of myself as constantly learning.”

On experience and getting older: “When you’re 16, you think 28 is so old! And then you get to 28 and it’s fabulous. You think, then, what about 42? Ugh! And then 42 is great. As you reach each age, you gain the understanding and experience you need to deal with it and enjoy it.”