In Praise of Helen Mirren, Cinema’s Reigning Queen Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close

Helen Mirren Cinema s Reigning Queen

And AARP s 2017 Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Winner

Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. In an interview for "AARP The Magazine," Helen Mirren said people have two options in life: Die young, or get old. "The best thing about being over 70 is being over 70." Miller Mobley/August Indeed, Mirren, an official Dame — as in Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire — is regal even when she is playing a commoner. Think of her haughty confidence as the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant in The Hundred-Foot Journey, or her proud carriage as an elderly Jewish woman trying to reclaim a family portrait stolen by Hitler in Woman in Gold. She’s even the most elegant assassin ever in both RED films. But she is cheeky. Remember that 2016 Super Bowl ad for Budweiser in which she admonishes a viewing audience of zillions that “If you drive drunk, you, simply put, are a shortsighted, utterly useless, oxygen-wasting human form of pollution”? Or her entrance on Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show, when she stunned the normally unflappable CBS host by planting a full kiss on his lips? On top of all that, she has always been simply beautiful. Michael Powell cast her in the 1969 film Age of Consent because, he says, he found her “luscious, intelligent and hot.” L’Oréal made her the face of a beauty campaign and brand ambassador when she was 69. In the end, it’s her work that has vaulted her to fame and has been most important to her. As , about the beginning of her career, “I didn’t want to be famous, but I wanted to be a really good actress.” She didn’t get the first part of that wish. But she sure as heck got the second. MORE FROM AARP AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS