Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren has been a fixture in film since she began working in the ’60s, and she’s always been known for speaking her mind, but it’s only in the past few years that the Queen actress has been so righteously blunt about her views on women’s place in society, and how that translates into Hollywood. She recently came out to discuss how freeing it is to no longer be considered a sex symbol, and in that same interview spoke on how happy she is to have women like Kim Kardashian and the Pussy Riot members advocating for shamelessness.
More specifically, Mirren mentioned the way women in the ’60s were meant to affect a demure attitude, and that, when she was growing up, it was “thought to be unbelievably sluttish to even have a bra strap showing.” She goes on to list a group of women she thanks for shifting this perception, naming Madonna, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, Bonnie Raitt, Pussy Riot, and Kim Kardashian, whom she thanks along with J-Lo for making it OK to have a butt. “We’re also allowed to have thighs now, which is great too. It’s very positive.”
Mirren has celebrated her body through film since the ’70s, and never shied away from showing her body onscreen. It was only last year that, at the age of 70, she decided to “retire” from onscreen nudity. All that aside, this year she’ll star alongside Will Smith and Keira Knightley in the film Collateral Beauty, even though she has also said she hates the word “beauty.”