Mirren Thinks Women Should Be Action Heroes Too

Helen Mirren has been in the biz for more than 40 years; she’s won an Academy Award and is one of a very small handful of women over 60 to have a (semi-) permanent spot on the big screen. If anyone is qualified to comment on the state of women in Hollywood, it’s Helen. She’s been in the news this week for a number of reasons, all good.

Today Mirren hit out at the producers of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for not creating any roles in the film for women. Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gary Oldman get to suit up for some old-school espionage, but the ladies are left out in the cold. Mirren says, in this case, art is not imitating life.

“The secret service always had a huge number of women working for them, and they played major roles in real life. But they were ignored for this film! How many women were in that? I mean, come on. There weren’t any women in the ’70s?”

Mirren’s demure exterior and dulcet voice seem to be harbouring a pretty hard-core feminist.

The 66-year-old recently said she’d like nothing more than to become a full-time action star. However unlike Bruce Willis and Matt Damon, she doesn’t have the right man bits, so she doesn’t have the option. She says of her one action movie experience in Reds: “Using that gun was horribly fun. Us girls don’t tend to do that sort of thing too often but you suddenly get this dangerous and visceral pleasure that’s rather disturbing.”

Never one to mind bucking gender stereotypes, Mirren has often admitted that, despite loving children, she doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body and chose not to have kids because of her “gypsy sense of adventure.”

In an interview with The Guardian she says, ”I was always an instinctive feminist, without being overly political, just in my feelings about myself.”

Mirren should speak up more often. I’d definitely listen.

Check out this classic video of her telling a sexist British chat show host where he and his thoughts about her “equipment” can go.

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