Helen Mirren Quotes

June 5, 2021June 9, 2021 Undefeated Motivation

“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 great marriages are partnerships. It can’t be a great marriage without being a partnership.” -Helen Mirren

“Sometimes nudity is sexy. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes being clothed is more sexy than being nude.” -Helen Mirren

“When you’re young and beautiful, you’re paranoid and miserable.” -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

“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

“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

“The trick in life is learning how to deal with it.” -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

“There’s no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time.” -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

“There isn’t a King Lear for women, or a Henry V, or a Richard III. You reach a level where you can handle that stuff technically and mentally, and it’s not there.” -Helen Mirren

“Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be.” -Helen Mirren

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

“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

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

“I learned quite early on in life that we are all two people. And one of those people none of us will ever know.” -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

“I’d describe myself as a Christian who doesn’t believe in God.” -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

“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.” -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

“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?’” -Helen Mirren

“The control and understanding of our personal fears is one of the most important undertakings of our lives.” -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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“The poor Oscars – they always get slammed in the press.” -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

“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

“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

“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

“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.” -Helen Mirren

“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

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

“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.” -Helen Mirren

“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.” -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

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

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