Helen Mirren Quotes & Sayings

I think every woman in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it, but if you were to take any woman back forty years and say, 'Is this a world you want to live in?' they would say, 'No. — Helen Mirren

When I was about 25, I went to a hand reader, this Indian guy in a funky neighborhood. He said: The height of your success won't happen until you're in your late 40s. — Helen Mirren

Americans are very good at animating voices. I don't know why. They have a freedom with them that we British actors find more difficult to get to. — Helen Mirren

I remember thinking, when I was in my early 30s, that this is the best age to be, and I still believe your 30s are a wonderful time. — Helen Mirren

I feel the written word, poetry and literature is just one of the most beautiful things that human beings do. So we have to fight for it. — Helen Mirren

Southend is a dormitory town for London. But it also had this thing of being the playground of the East End - a glamorous holiday town. — Helen Mirren

There's a heartbeat in any country that carries on regardless - at least in Europe. That's what worries me about America, because I'm not sure what that heartbeat is - unless it's the heartbeat of someone who's just arrived, who just ran over the border two weeks ago. — Helen Mirren

The poor Oscars - they always get slammed in the press. — Helen Mirren

The most difficult thing about shooting guns instantly on film is to not pull a silly face while the gun is going off, because it's always a bit of a shock. So you find yourself sticking your tongue out or blinking or whatever. So the hardest thing is to keep a straight face while you're shooting a gun. — Helen Mirren

Right after winning the Oscar, when everyone was going home, they let these little gold Oscary shapes flutter down from the ceiling. Leonardo DiCaprio came over, bowed down, and kissed my hand. It was the most fabulous moment - such a lovely gesture. He didn't say anything. — Helen Mirren

What's great in the modern world is that it's becoming easier and easier for people to create without having access to large sums of money. They need access to certain technologies, but the cost is far less than it used to be. — Helen Mirren

You have to allow life to play itself out. — Helen Mirren

I've always found as an actress that the best thing to do in film or TV or theater is just to lose yourself in it. Think of the story, the character, the worlds we're in, and forget everything else. — Helen Mirren

The great marriages are partnerships. It can't be a great marriage without being a partnership. — Helen Mirren

I don't think it's good to try and change anyone. The trick and the mystery - of relationships and life in general - is to learn to live with the bits you don't like. — Helen Mirren

What I feel personally and what I can act are two different things. Maybe one of the great pleasures of my job is being able to inhabit worlds that you are never going to inhabit personally. — Helen Mirren

The most important thing is to bring people with Parkinson's into our world and for the public to have a real understanding of it, as they're beginning to have with autism. — Helen Mirren

I can't say 'no' to an interesting role. I always tell my husband, 'That's it, I quit, I've done all I wanted,' and he's just like, 'Yeah, yeah. Sure.' — Helen Mirren

I'd like to see a much more open Monarchy, myself. I used to think they were completely useless and we should get rid of them. I don't necessarily feel that way anymore. I'm still ambivalent, I still loathe the British class system, and the Royal family are the apex of the British class system. — Helen Mirren

I met with Hitchcock when I was a very, very young actress just starting out and he was making 'Frenzy' in London and I was sent along to meet with him. He was very, very unimpressed with me and I have to say, I was rather unimpressed with him - but only because I was an arrogant, ignorant young actress. — Helen Mirren

I don't throw a lot of parties. I find throwing parties a bit intimidating. — Helen Mirren

People with Parkinson's are not some weird people on the edge of human experience. — Helen Mirren

I've always been battling against my sense of dignity and refinement. I was embarrassed by any bodily functions when I was younger. I could never even blow my nose. — Helen Mirren

I don't get to play the same role over and over in different movies. The roles that I get to play are quite varied, which is great. — Helen Mirren

Where you grew up becomes a big part of who you are for the rest of your life. You can't run away from that. Well, sometimes the running away from it is what makes you who you are. — Helen Mirren

I have done film, television and theatre - all at a pretty substantial level - I don't think it's possible for American actors to do that. — Helen Mirren

I am in a fabulously lucky position in that I get to wear beautiful, beautiful gowns for functions, which I can then give back. That way, they're not sitting in my wardrobe with me looking at them and feeling guilty. I love that, and I think when people have a fabulous function to go to, I'd recommend renting. — Helen Mirren

It was never my intention to marry anybody. Economics are basically the only reason to get married, but I'm very glad I did it. — Helen Mirren

I don't see that anybody needs to earn $12 million for three months' work, quite honestly. — Helen Mirren

Nothing is quite so emotional and passionate as what goes on inside of a family. People are driven to distraction by a father or a mother or a husband. Or a child. — Helen Mirren

I still have a Gypsy sense of adventure. I don't think I have slept in the same bed for more than three or four months my whole life. I am always planting vegetables that I never get to eat and flowers that I never see flower. I have always moved around the world. — Helen Mirren

When women get great roles in life, they start to get great roles in films and TV. Look at Janet Reno, Madeleine Albright, and Mrs. Thatcher. Because those images are coming at us in life, they are reflected in acting. — Helen Mirren

I'm not a republican any more. Not so voraciously anyway - I'm not in favour of the concept of monarchy, but I do see the good in it if there's a good person in the role. — Helen Mirren

There's no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time. — Helen Mirren

I think still it is very fine not to want children. There are far too many people in the world. It is my contribution to ecology — Helen Mirren

They're called 'action scenes' because they do the acting for you. You don't have to act in action scenes. The action does it all for you. It's great. — Helen Mirren

I am not too keen on my nose, I don't like my knees, I hate my ankles, I am unsure about my behind, I don't like my legs at all. I am not too sure about my chin, my forehead is a bit dodgy. But, overall, I can live with it. — Helen Mirren

You have to go through the long, painful process of learning techniques to be able to recognize a "good accident" or a "bad accident." — Helen Mirren

Where does this guy's ambition go? That's very peculiar. I think he's a very disturbing person, I think he's a very disturbing politician. Personally, I feel his interest is a self-interest — Helen Mirren

Los Angeles is Hollywood and Hollywood is Hollywood Blvd. It's the first thing you want to see. It's the only thing really that you know about as far as Los Angeles is concerned. And so you go and you look at Joan Crawford's hands and feet and the whole history of American filmmaking is encapsulated in that one little area on that one street. That street, to me, has always been the street of dream. — Helen Mirren

It's very easy to just shout: 'Off with their heads!' Maybe in doing that you might lose something very valuable. I would like to see the monarchy continue, but in a more democratic fashion. — Helen Mirren

My dad's Russian. My mother's English. I would say my bottom half is Russian. — Helen Mirren

Once a film gets into production, the actors sometimes begin to have more input than a writer does. — Helen Mirren

People often ask me whether I prefer theater or film, and the answer is that I prefer the one I'm not doing: The grass is always greener. — Helen Mirren

I woke up one day and realized I could never be an American. — Helen Mirren

When you do a voice in an animated film, you don't see the finished product at all. You're not animating. You're not doing the voice on the finished product. You're doing the voice long before. — Helen Mirren

The role of women has always been undervalued in the spy world, always undermined in terms of recognition. Unfairly so. It's a world that needs women. — Helen Mirren

Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That's the fun of them. You're always learning. — Helen Mirren

I still suffer terribly from stage fright. I get sick with fear. Not every night, but at the beginning and on occasion - not necessarily when I'm expecting it. You just have to cope with it - take it on the chin and work through it, trying to use the adrenalin to perform. — Helen Mirren

When you're young and beautiful, you're paranoid and miserable. — Helen Mirren

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 you need to deal with it and enjoy it. — Helen Mirren

I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly young people, beautiful old people, whatever. It's so unsexual and so liberating ... — Helen Mirren

You can't control how other people see you or think of you. But you have to be comfortable with that. — Helen Mirren

I have to say, without sounding like a total tosser, that everything I've learned in life, and that has taken me out of my natural interior life, has been with men. They exposed me to things that I wasn't aware of. I learned from all the guys. — Helen Mirren

I believe in meditation - it's a good tool to centre yourself, but unfortunately, I'm too lazy to do it. It's very hard work, and I prefer to watch 'Nothing To Declare' on TV! — Helen Mirren

I have never in my life found myself in a situation where I've stopped work and said, 'Thank God it's Friday.' But weekends are special even if your schedule is all over the place. Something tells you the weekend has arrived and you can indulge yourself a bit. — Helen Mirren

I think we all have a dream of what it would be like not to work and grow heirloom tomatoes, and I do have that dream. It would be lovely. I do love gardening and all of that, but I do love my work. — Helen Mirren

When I was making films [early in my career] there were very, very few female directors, and there were certainly no women on set, which made taking one's clothes off all the more difficult — Helen Mirren

It has nothing to do with clothing or makeup. Just put your shoulders back and chin up, and face the world with pride. — Helen Mirren

It's so hard when you're young to look at older people and understand that they have been where you are. It's the weirdest thing. You just can't get your head around that, can you? You can't get your head around the fact that someone who is 60 was once 16, if you're 16. But the fact is they have been, and they remember it. — Helen Mirren

You know, some actors, all of their potential is in their youth, and when that passes, their qualities of as an actor pass. But he - Alan [Rickman] was the opposite, and their are other actors who are like that, who, really, their potential is in maturity — Helen Mirren

I don't believe that if you do good, good things will happen. Everything is completely accidental and random. Sometimes bad things happen to very good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people. But at least if you try to do good things, then you're spending your time doing something worthwhile. — Helen Mirren

The whole thing of clothes is insane. You can spend a dollar on a jacket in a thrift store. And you can spend a thousand dollars on a jacket in a shop. And if you saw those two jackets walking down the street, you probably wouldn't know which was which. — Helen Mirren

Acting is acting, but acting is different in almost always every project, and very, very different in this context. — Helen Mirren

Hollywood is a very small world; the people who matter matter, and the people who don't matter are just like nothing. — Helen Mirren

I'm a would-be rebel. The good girl who'd like to be a bad one. — Helen Mirren

It'll be the Internet and piracy that will kill film. There's a philosophy that the Internet should be free, but the reality is that piracy will destroy the film industry and film as an art form because it's expensive to make a movie. Maybe you'll have funky little independent movies, and it'll go back and then start up again some other way. — Helen Mirren

When I'm choosing projects to be a part of it's always a combination of so many different things. The primary thing is the director. But a very important element is, is it different enough from anything else I've ever done, or what I've last done. — Helen Mirren

I've been working every year since I started acting, and I got many awards before I won the Oscar for 'The Queen.' — Helen Mirren

I became an actress because I discovered the world of the imagination when I was about 14 or so and the concept that you could engage in this amazing world of storytelling. I saw a production of Hamlet, and I didn't know Hamlet died in the end. — Helen Mirren

I resent having witnessed the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of the very brilliant female ones. — Helen Mirren

Humor in a relationship is so important. Many women will say that. Some say, 'If they can make you laugh, it's the sexiest thing on earth.' — Helen Mirren

I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is more scathing, more cruel, as illustrated by Monty Python and Little Britain. — Helen Mirren

I'm under the impression that this notion of decency is disappearing from our society where conflicts are made worse on cinema and on television, where people are nasty and cruel on the Internet and where, in general, everybody seems to be very angry. — Helen Mirren

With that incredible voice that he [Alan Rickman] could play like a sort of wonderful instrument, like a cello or something. He played his voice, and he could be the most subtle of actors. And he could also be quite a big actor. He could do the grandiose performances as well. — Helen Mirren

Girls go out together to see a chick flick or something. I loathe, I hate, chick flicks. — Helen Mirren

I am British. I love Britain for all its faults and all its virtues. My husband is American and I am largely based in Los Angeles, but whenever someone asks me where home is, I automatically say 'London.' — Helen Mirren

You write your life story by the choices you make. You never know if they have been a mistake. Those moments of decision are so difficult. — Helen Mirren

I have no maternal instinct whatsoever. Motherhood holds no interest for me. — Helen Mirren

I'm terrified of learning lines, and I've always been terrified that I won't learn them. — Helen Mirren

I hate people eating on film. I hate it even worse on the radio, when people eat on the radio. I just can't stand it. — Helen Mirren

English actors feel vaguely apologetic for being there at all. American actors know that the most important thing is to get one take out of fifty that is great, and they'll go to any length to get it. The English are used to working within consistently small, low-budget things and think, I mustn't waste their time. — Helen Mirren

Love thy neighbor is difficult. That's why everybody - wars, you know. It's the hardest. And it's the most important. And respect thy neighbor. Love and respect. It means respect, really. Respect thy neighbor. Respect the other, the different. — Helen Mirren

Being me right now is sort of amazing. — Helen Mirren

Everyone wants to be a movie star or a model, to be in the papers, but few realise just what hard work it is, getting up early, and so on. — Helen Mirren

Ill-informed intuition is fantastic - it's what great art is. So really old painters or writers or actors are brilliant, because they've finally reached the point when they can let go of al technique. — Helen Mirren

I love photography, and I love the art of photography. — Helen Mirren

I knew I wanted to engage in the world of the imagination, but it was not economically feasible for me to study acting, so I went to a teachers' training college. — Helen Mirren

As you get older naked stuff [on film] gets easier. It's more to do with the role than what men in the audience think. There's a liberation about it. — Helen Mirren

There's nothing sexy about doing a nude scene. It's rather uncomfortable. I like dressing up rather than dressing down. — Helen Mirren

We're all idiots when we're young. We don't think we are, but we are. So we should be. — Helen Mirren

There is that awful moment when you realize that you're falling in love. That should be the most joyful moment, and actually it's not. It's always a moment that's full of fear because you know, as night follows day, the joy is going to rapidly be followed by some pain or other. All the angst of a relationship. — Helen Mirren

I'm not a communist, of course. But I do think that everything is down to economics. Capitalism doesn't change. — Helen Mirren

Wherever I am in the world, if I get free time when I'm filming I always hire a car, take to the road, drive for miles and explore. — Helen Mirren

I was part of the first generation of girls and women to be educated and go to grammar school even if we didn't have much money. Then that generation went, 'OK, great', and went into medicine or the police, and hit this wall of discrimination from older men who hadn't caught up. — Helen Mirren

I believe that if you want to go make your mark on the world you've got to go out and do it. Don't be shy, be adventurous. — Helen Mirren

A woman with knowledge is something that frightens the status quo quite a lot. — Helen Mirren

I certainly think that he [Alan Rickman] was a kind of actor who needed to grow into his maturity to realize the potential, the huge potential that he had. — Helen Mirren

I love that country [Israel]. — Helen Mirren

Words can be used for venal purposes. Words are incredible sources of propaganda and can cause terrible havoc. — Helen Mirren