Appearing at a recent film festival in Italy, Helen Mirren dazzled fans with her daring couture, leaving them tickled pink.
A timeless beauty, Britain’s national treasure, who turns 78 in July, walked the red carpet in a show-stopping hot pink frock, with her long white hair draped over her shoulders.
Preferring a “radical” style over conformist, the proper British beauty is very vocal in charging society with imposing ageist standards that she says are “limiting.”
Dame Helen Mirren is a highly decorated British-born actor, with an impressive portfolio that includes performances with The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in England and numerous Hollywood films, a perfect blend of talents that lends to her impressive portrayal of her multiple-award winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.
Before she appeared on a screen, Mirren started her career at 20, in theatre, first playing the lead in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, and then earning a position with the RSC before making her debut in London’s West End in 1975.
Following several appearances in films, she had her breakthrough role in The Long Good Friday (1980) with Bob Hoskins and then the 1981 film Excalibur, where she met Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom she dated and lived with for a few years in the early 1980s.
After a five-year relationship with Neeson, Mirren met Taylor Hackford, the director of White Nights, a 1985 film she starred alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines and Isabella Rossellini. The couple have been married since 1997.
Currently starring in a leading role in the TV series 1923–the Yellowstone spinoff–her co-star Harrison Ford, says “she’s still sexy” and credits her as being a “big draw” for him to join the show.
“It’s been remarkable to watch her,” said Ford, who appeared with Mirren in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast. Speaking of her performance in 1923, he adds, “There’s a lot of physical action, and she just jumps right in and does stuff you don’t imagine Helen Mirren would do. Dame Helen Mirren.”
Mirren jumped right into her role as the villainous Goddess Vespera in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), and doing most of her own stunts, she broke her thumb.
Boasting a balance of classical and commercial acting, the diverse range of her roles include her Oscar-nominated performances in The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001) and The Last Station (2009), to the action comedies Red and Red 2, and The Fast and the Furious, to the upcoming film Barbie, that she narrates.
Mirren belongs to the Triple Crown of Actors, an exclusive group of 24 actors–only 12 alive–that has an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award.
Aging almost 60 years since she started acting, Mirren boldly speaks out on ageist beauty standards and did not love when Esquire named her the “Sexiest Woman Alive.”
“I don’t like the word sexual. There are people who are sexual, and [others] who are less sexual. But there’s got to be another word. ‘Sexual’ is so limiting,” she said. “Being powerful is so much more interesting than being beautiful.”
Mirren pulled off a powerful and interesting look in early June at the Ora! Film Festival in Italy, when she wore a bright pink maxi dress, with silver sequins, that’s cinched at the waist. She paired the look with comfortable open-toed silver flats and used a matching pink hair band to pull her long silvery-white hair from her face.
“You’re not supposed to have longer hair after a certain age,” said Mirren, who spoke about her roles in Shazam! and 1923 on the British breakfast TV show, Lorraine. She continued, “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. 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.”
In mid-May, at the Cannes Film Festival première of Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp, Mirren wore a stunning periwinkle blue gown and dyed her hair shades of blue to match the dress.
Allure praises her look, writing: “Honestly, it’s going to be hard for any celebrity, even Mirren herself, to top this look. But we won’t mind seeing this blue hair again and again for the rest of the festival.”
the L’Oréal ambassador shared with Oprah Daily that she wished more mature women would experiment with their looks: “There are no rules. And I don’t think women should play into that outdated concept. Life’s short. Have fun.”
And she adds her hope is that women will challenge stereotypes set by society.
“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,” she said. “So, just be self-motivated, really, and never give up. And find enjoyment, if it’s possible in your life.”
We love Helen Mirren and her fabulous styles! We also love that she’s authentically beautiful and whether she’s wearing a track suit or a gown, she’s still elegant and stunning!
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