Celebrating the life and career of Dame Helen Mirren  
  • Home & Updates
  • The Archives
  • The Complete Works
  • Press Library
  • Photo Gallery
  • Video Archive
  •   Twitter
Cosmopolitan
Helen Mirren: When you get older you don't give a flying fuck
July 28, 2015   |   Written by Lucy Partington

6 pieces of essential life wisdom from our favourite Dame

1. It’s ok to hate the word ‘beautiful’

“Not all of us are beautiful. I hate that word. Kate Moss is beautiful, so is David Beckham, and I can appreciate a beautiful girl walking down the street. Young is beautiful. But the majority of us are something else and I wish there was another word for it.”

2. It’s ok to think you looked better when you were younger

“I looked better, without a doubt. But the great thing that happens when you get older is that you don’t give a flying fuck. I don’t look as good, but I don’t care. In my job I work with great makeup artists and I get to wear Victoria Beckham dresses, but in my other life I get on the tube and bus and go to the supermarket without makeup on. As you get older you lose the incredible insecurity of being young. Youth is wasted on the young.”

3. It’s ok to not really care about your hair

“I was never into colouring it, even now I’m not. I do occasionally get fed up and sometimes want a change and I’ll dye it then. That said, I did use L’Oreal Paris Excellence Age Perfect Hair Colourant in Light Beige Blonde a few days ago. Everything that happens to my hair happens in my bathroom, I very rarely go to the hairdresser.”

4. It’s ok not to believe lotions and potions do what they say

“I love cleansers and I like using body creams and face creams, but I don’t honestly know if they do anything for you. I like the way they make me feel – fresh, comfortable, clean and ready for the day. I do love L’Oreal Age Perfect Rehydrating Cream Night; it makes me feel good when I put it on. I am a great consumer of all that but I am realistic about what it can do. It’s more about how it makes you feel and and your feeling about yourself.”

5. It’s ok to be blown away by the Internet

“You either die young or your die old, there’s nothing in between and I’m glad I didn’t die young. I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I’m totally blown away by that. The internet is a huge movement in the history of humanity – it’s maybe even more important that the creation of the printing press. If the price I have to pay to see the future is getting older than so be it!”

6. It’s ok to wear a bikini whatever your age or size

“The term “gran-bod” is disgusting, insulting, reductive and horrible. I think women should have the freedom to wear whatever they like. I love the freedom of wearing a bikini. I have a house in Southern Italy and everybody there wears a bikini no matter how big or small they are.”

Dame Helen Mirren is the face of L’Oreal Paris Age Perfect

  Back to previous page



  Timeline
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
1969
1968
Browse articles
Magazine articles
Newspaper articles
Online articles
Cover Stories: 2010s
Cover Stories: 2000s
Cover Stories: 1990s
Cover Stories: 1980s
Cover Stories: 1970s
The Helen Mirren Archives | www.helen-mirren.net | Powered by Wordpress | Hosted by Flaunt Network | Read DMCA