10 times Helen Mirren was a bona fide treasure
She may be a Grammy away from an EGOT but perhaps the greatest gift Helen Mirren has shared throughout her storied career — which, over the last five decades, has garnered four Emmys, a Tony, two Golden Globes, five BAFTA Awards and one Oscar — is not her acting prowess, but her unrepentant honesty.
In honor of the standard-bearer's 71st birthday, we look back on 10 times Mirren didn't give a Dame and told it like it is.
1. When she broke down how language reinforces the infantilization of women.
"Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are 'strong' and 'feisty,'" Mirren said in a December 1997 interview with The Independent. "They really annoy me. It's the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilizes women."
2. When she lamented the lack of compelling roles for women — and, in particular, older women.
"There isn't a King Lear for women, or a Henry V, or a Richard III," Mirren affirmed in the same interview with The Independent. "You reach a level where you can handle that stuff technically and mentally, and it's not there."
3. When she slammed Hollywood's "penis worship."
"I resent in my life the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of some very brilliant female ones," Mirren said during THR's Power 100 Women in Entertainment breakfast back in December 2010. "With all respect to you many brilliant and successful women in this room — executives, producers, writers, directors — really not too much has changed in the canon of Hollywood filmmaking, which continues to worship at the altar of the 18- to 25-year-old man ... and his penis."
4. When she confirmed the hardest period in life.
"The hardest period in life is one’s twenties," Mirren wrote in an August 2011 piece for Esquire. "It’s a shame because you’re your most gorgeous and you’re physically in peak condition. But it’s actually when you’re most insecure and full of self-doubt. When you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s frightening."
5. When she maintained that Hollywood's "women problem" is just symptomatic of systemic sexism.
"When roles for women in real life change, then you will see change in the film industry," Mirren toldThe Guardian in September 2015. "If we happen to see a (female) president of the United States, and a world expert on marine biology comes on television and it’s a woman, or the female head of a petroleum company on the news."
6. When she preached on the importance of powering through fear.
(Warning: This video contains some explicit language.)
"I’m frightened all the time, of everything, really," Mirren admitted during TheWrap's June 2015 Power Women Breakfast in New York City. "The point is not to be afraid of the fact that you’re afraid. You get on with it."
7. When she was appointed the new face of L’Oréal Paris in 2014 and asked for honest (read: untouched) photos.
"I said, 'You take me with my attitude or just don’t have me, have someone else,'" Mirren shared with The Guardian in September 2015. "They said, 'Absolutely, that’s what we want. We want truth, we want transparency.'"
8. When she dropped one of the greatest PSAs of all time.
Mirren teamed up with Budweiser for a 2016 Super Bowl commercial, during which she put on her sternest headmaster face and promptly frightened fans out of going within 10 feet of their vehicle while under the influence: "If you drive drunk, you, simply put, are a short-sighted, utterly useless, oxygen-wasting human form of pollution." Tell us how you really feel, Dame!
9. When she honored Prince's legacy in the most Mirren way possible.
Mirren arrived at the 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 30, modeling a semi-sheer, purple gown and a temporary, purple tattoo, a tribute to the unpronounceable symbol Prince (who then embraced the alias, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince") assumed during his campaign to break free from his former record label, Warner Bros. Speaking to The Washington Post about the tribute, Mirren noted: "I admire great artists and he was a great artist."
10. When she was frank on feminism.
"Any woman now actually is a feminist," Mirren toldMarie Claire earlier this month. "They don't realize it, because they're living in a world feminism has, to a certain extent, created for them — which is very exciting because it's entitled. That's what I love about them. They're entitled."