HELEN Mirren has said she’s pleased the idea she’s a sex symbol is “fading” in a candid interview – adding that she’d only like to be younger to get more film roles.
The 72-year-old actress revealed she’s always found the sex symbol tag “tacky”, and explained how she struggled to accept herself due to image insecurities in her youth.
Dame Helen, who is currently filming an action-packed Luc Besson film next year, told magazine what it was like to be viewed as an object of desire.
And the performer, who has famously played Queen Elizabeth, seemed to regret that men like 50 Cent have lusted after her.
On being a “sex symbol”, she said: “I’ve had to come to terms with it over a long period of time, luckily it’s fading now.”
Reflecting on how being a pin-up affected her life, she added: “It’s rather ghastly isn’t it, the thought of all these weird strangers.
“I’ve always found it a very tacky and unpleasant tag but it’s one I had to kind of grit my teeth and bear for a long time.”
The Bafta-winning superstar, who has been married to Taylor Hackford since 1997, was described years ago by Michael Parkinson as a “sex queen” on TV and asked about her “equipment”.
Since then Dame Helen’s beauty has been attached to her professional image, but the actress – who is a L’Oreal ambassador – is getting the most interesting roles 42 years after the “creepy” interview.
And she says that she’s not anxious about ageing – but she envies the vast array opportunities given to younger actors.
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“I do wish I was 30 now, not because I wish I was 30!” she said.
“Not that, but I want to have more of my life in the world we’re going to have for the next 40 or 50 years for women.
“I just want to experience this world as a younger person.”
Like many women in the public eye, Dame Helen also confessed that she was insecure about her body throughout her 20s.
The star says that it was only when she turned 30 that she stopped thinking she was “too curvy” and accepted herself.
She explained: “I just relaxed into who I was, it was never going to change, I wasn’t suddenly overnight going to be coming something else.”
Fans of Dame Helen can see her in Disney’s upcoming adventure The Nutcracker and the Four Realms alongside Keira Knightley, as well as Winchester, and Berlin, I Love You, in 2018.
Meanwhile her role as Queen Elizabeth’s alter-ego has been swiped off her by Olivia Colman in the next series of Netflix’s The Crown, following two series of Claire Foy playing the monarch.
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