Helen Mirren has hit back at those who try and put her into a box because she's an "older woman."
On Wednesday (March 8), the 77-year-old actress appeared on an episode of Lorraine in the UK where she slammed the stereotypes surrounding women aging.
"You’re not supposed to have longer hair after a certain age," she told the host. "But during Covid, I started growing my hair and I hadn’t actually had long hair since I was in my 20s. And it sort of grew and grew and grew, and I couldn’t be bothered to cut it, basically."
She continued, describing the move as "radical": "I thought, do you know what, it’s pretty cool, I think I’ll stick with it for a little while. It will come off eventually.
"But I’m kind of enjoying it, it’s quite radical."
The Woman In Gold star has been showing off her long locks during promotions of her latest film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods where she plays the role of the villain, Hespera.
Elsewhere in the interview, Mirren also discussed how it feels to be a representative for women over 60, not just in her industry, but beyond it too.
"Life doesn't stop. And creativity doesn't stop and passion doesn't stop and energy doesn't stop unless you decide to stop it.
"So it's just be self-motivated, really, and never give up. And find enjoyment, if it's possible in your life."
And her positive attitude seems to be resonating with other women too.
In a new interview with Harper's Bazaar, former Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira Knightley stated that she would prefer to have an attitude towards agism like Mirren's.
"A lot of the conversations I’ll have with my girlfriends are, 'Oh my God, I’ve got a line [wrinkle]. Oh God!'", she says speaking of how beauty standards are used to contain women. "Change is always tricky. We’re taught that it’s bad. We’re taught that we don’t want grey hair. I love that you’ve got grey hair."
"You’ve got Madonna on the one hand – and we’re told that’s not the right thing. Then you have someone else, where we’re told, 'They looked better 20 years ago'. How are we, culturally, meant to age?"
She goes on to cite Mirren as a "terribly good" example.
"She ages in the most sensational manner. She’s fabulous in every way. You look at her and think, 'God, you’re having so much fun. You’re enjoying life so much.'"
Mirren herself has been pretty vocal about this whole aging debacle, so much so that she has rejected the term "anti-aging."
Speaking to Grazia in 2019, she said: "It’s extremely annoying to women of my generation and others following mine to have beauty products sold on a 15-year-old face."
She also added she doesn’t like using the term "beauty" because it makes people who are insecure about their looks feel "immediately excluded."
"They’ll think, 'Well, I’m not very beautiful. It’s all very well for all these beautiful women, but I don’t feel beautiful,'" she explained to the outlet.
"I don’t want to exclude these people from feeling fabulous about themselves," she said.
Aging is not something to be ashamed of, it's a natural process and it's great that we have examples like Knightley and Mirren to look towards for that extra boost of confidence.
