Top 150 Helen Mirren Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

52. “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

53. “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

54. “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

55. “I believe kids shouldn’t be taught Shakespeare. They should experience it first by seeing a great production.”

— Helen Mirren

56. “I used to look out the window of my bedroom as a kid, and there were these stars that, in my mind, made a big “A” in the sky. I thought my destiny was to go there.”

— Helen Mirren

57. “I have no maternal instinct whatsoever. Motherhood holds no interest for me.”

— Helen Mirren

58. “Words can be used for venal purposes. Words are incredible sources of propaganda and can cause terrible havoc.”

— Helen Mirren

59. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

60. “I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is more scathing, more cruel, as illustrated by Monty Python and Little Britain.”

— Helen Mirren

61. “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

62. “I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.”

— Helen Mirren

63. “Being powerful is so much more interesting than being beautiful.”

— Helen Mirren

64. “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

65. “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

66. “I drink just as much tea when I’m in Los Angeles as I do when I’m in London. I take my tea bags with me wherever I go.”

— Helen Mirren

67. “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

68. “At the time of the Silver Jubilee, I was a grumpy anti-monarchist. I didn’t celebrate and was appalled by the celebrations. In my idiocy, I missed out! I feel completely differently now compared with that time.”

— Helen Mirren

69. “The French always seemed to be so chic. The food was better, the clothes were better, the makeup was better, the hair was better. Everything was better in France.”

— Helen Mirren

70. “You have to allow life to play itself out.”

— Helen Mirren

71. “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

72. “Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That’s the fun of them. You’re always learning.”

— Helen Mirren

73. “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

74. “It’s outrageous. It’s ridiculous. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

— Helen Mirren

75. “Flesh sells. People don’t want to see pictures of churches. They want to see naked bodies.”

— Helen Mirren

76. “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

77. “When you’re 16, 30 seems ancient. When you’re 30, 45 seems ancient. When you’re 45, 60 seems ancient. When you’re 60, nothing seems ancient.”

— Helen Mirren

78. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

79. “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

80. “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

81. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

82. “I think we all have a dream of what it would be like not to work and grow heir loom 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

83. “Girls go out together to see a chick flick or something. I loathe, I hate, chick flicks.”

— Helen Mirren

84. “I was never a left-winger, actually. I was a pretend left-winger because it was more interesting than being a right-winger.”

— Helen Mirren

85. “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

86. “Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are ‘strong’ and ‘feisty.’ They really annoy me. It’s the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilises women.”

— Helen Mirren

87. “It seems to me that the years between eighteen and twenty-eight are the hardest, psychologically .”

— Helen Mirren

88. “I don’t know who I am. But I do know who I’m not. I have occasionally tried playing people I’m definitely not, and that wasn’t a very pleasant experience.”

— Helen Mirren

89. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

90. “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

91. “There’s nothing sexy about doing a nude scene. It’s rather uncomfortable. I like dressing up rather than dressing down.”

— Helen Mirren

92. “Like journalists. The police have an extremely sick sense of humor, very guarded, very private, very male, which they need to survive on an everyday level. I don’t think anyone has ever managed to tap that on the screen – it would actually be too shocking.”

— Helen Mirren

93. “The whole ‘R’ rating depends on a strange sort of fantasy land where all adults are responsible people, and children only ever go to the cinema with their parents.”

— Helen Mirren

94. “I resent having witnessed the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of the very brilliant female ones.”

— Helen Mirren

95. “I do think it’s well over-time to have a female Doctor Who. I think a gay, black female Doctor Who would be the best of all.”

— Helen Mirren

96. “Writers can get very angry when an actor says, “I don’t know, I don’t feel very comfortable with this line.” Sometimes though, you’re working with a writer for whom that is simply not apt – like Harold Pinter.”

— Helen Mirren

97. “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.”

— Helen Mirren

98. “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

99. “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.’”

— Helen Mirren

100. “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