Words matter. These are the best Helen Mirren Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
There’s a scary moment when you realise you’re no longer the youngest person in the room. Especially if you’ve been a successful young person. That’s followed, of course, by the realisation that you’re actually the oldest person in the room.
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.
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.
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.
You can’t control how other people see you or think of you. But you have to be comfortable with that.
I’m not a communist, of course. But I do think that everything is down to economics. Capitalism doesn’t change.
I’m terrified of learning lines, and I’ve always been terrified that I won’t learn them.
Any role that’s proactive is a great role, and action roles are by their very nature proactive. You get to do stuff. I hate sitting in a corner – I’d much prefer an action role in a popcorn movie rather than pining in a corner not doing anything.
I always love working with young actors, because there’s always something to learn. It’s always exciting to see the next generation and how they approach things and what’s great about them and what’s not so great about them.
The great marriages are partnerships. It can’t be a great marriage without being a partnership.
I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is more scathing, more cruel, as illustrated by Monty Python and Little Britain.
I don’t like the word ‘strong,’ because a strong character is never an interesting character. A character is made interesting by their vulnerabilities and their weaknesses.
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.
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.
I’ll tell you what me scares me is plastic. Plastic bags and plastic bottles and these things. Why does my water have to be in a bloody plastic bottle? The landfill and the ocean. And I don’t know, I’m just terrified with the proliferation of plastic.
All you have to do is to look like crap on film and everyone thinks you’re a brilliant actress. Actually, all you’ve done is look like crap.
I am quite spiritual. I believed in the fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don’t believe in God.
Hollywood is a very small world; the people who matter matter, and the people who don’t matter are just like nothing.
My dad’s Russian. My mother’s English. I would say my bottom half is Russian.
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.
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.
My parents believed in education and economic security, and I thank them for it. Because I think that’s part of what’s made my life stable. It was instilled in me. You have to be able to pay your bills. You do not get into debt. And I never have been.
Parkinson’s is a slow but inevitable process. It’s hard living with it on a daily basis. The difficulty facing people with it is that they never quite know ‘Can I or can’t I do this today?’
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.
When I came into the acting profession, it was quite hierarchical. You didn’t sit at the same table as the leading actor. Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud… these were very, very intimidating and powerful people.
It’s great to be queen!
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 40 years and say, ‘Is this a world you want to live in?’ They would say, ‘No.’
Flesh sells. People don’t want to see pictures of churches. They want to see naked bodies.
I think of myself as being a bit of a wimp deep down – a bourgeois wimp – and I’m fighting that. I think all Brits are, maybe.
Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be.
There’s no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time.
There’s nothing sexy about doing a nude scene. It’s rather uncomfortable. I like dressing up rather than dressing down.
Patience can be a good thing – but not necessarily. Sometimes it’s not so bad to be impatient. I’m a little bit too polite.
I was never a left-winger, actually. I was a pretend left-winger because it was more interesting than being a right-winger.
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.
I’d describe myself as a Christian who doesn’t believe in God.
I think a lot of my work has been a weird attempt to liberate myself, but it’s not altogether successful.
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.
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.
American actors who voice animated movies are so brilliant at it, because by the nature of American speak, it’s full of energy and full of commitment. And as a British actor, we have to kind of learn that.
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.
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.
I’m not strong-willed, actually. I’m a complete pushover. I love to be told what to do.
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!
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.
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.
It’s a mystery, that thing about chemistry, because often people who hate each other in real life and hate each other on the set have great chemistry on the screen. And people who love each other in real life and love each other on the set have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever.
I don’t throw a lot of parties. I find throwing parties a bit intimidating.
When you’re young, you wonder what all these old people are droning on about, trying to impart their wisdom. It’s not relevant to you because being young is such a specific thing. Thank God for that. Thank God for the young people who go out and demonstrate against rampant capitalism or whatever.
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.
The trick in life is learning how to deal with it.
Painters hate having to explain what their work is about. They always say, ‘It’s whatever you want it to be’ – because I think that’s their intention, to connect with each person’s subconscious, and not to try and dictate.
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.
I love men that love women. Morgan Freeman, who I worked with on ‘RED,’ was very flattering to me. But he is flattering to all women. He is a woman-charmer.
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