If the definition of a bad ass was ever prominent in film, it would be Dame Helen Mirren.
She’s played some pretty powerful characters. And she may be 70, but don’t think for one minute that Helen Mirren is thinking of slowing down.
She already has a tattoo on her hand, which was inked on a Native American reservation in the 70’s. And in an interview to promote her latest movie Eye In The Sky (where she plays an army colonel, a role originally written for a man), Dame Helen told Radio Times that she doesn’t regret her ink, and she wants more.
She said:
I’d like a whole sleeve. As you get older, I think it’s a better and better idea.
Some sort of curving pattern running up my arm. Maybe a snake. I quite like snakes.
Don’t think it’s possible for her to get any cooler? You’d be wrong.
Renowned for being unconventional, she famously twerked after winning Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman Of The Year award in 2014. And the year before? She dyed her hair pink.
Now, not only does she want a full sleeve, but she has also admitted that she would love to star in the Fast and Furious films. Basically she’s just a bad ass woman and inspirational role model.
But we’re not done.
She’s also voiced her opinion on the lack of women in film, and her latest role sees her starring as a colonel – a part originally written for a man.
Mirren told the BBC that it made her ‘cross’ that many roles were given to men regardless of whether or not it was a lead character.
She said:
You look at a scene and it’s going to be all men around a table and you think at least half of those could have been women.
It’s so hard to get a job as an actress, let alone as a star, but just a job – to be a working actress it’s so much more difficult than it is for men.
She also had her say on the lack of women as extras: “The only time that there is more women on the set as extras is a swimming pool scene and they’re all in bikinis – any swimming pool scene and suddenly it’s full of women.”
Between her tattoos, love of cars, and support for gender equality, I think it’s safe to say Dame Helen Mirren is one hell of a woman.
