Helen Mirren Has Big Ideas For The 'Swagger Industry'
By Kristin Myers on April 29, 2022 at 8:30 AM EDT
Dame Helen Mirren has some big ideas for the beauty industry, which she wants to rename the "swagger industry."
Mirren was recently selected to feature on the cover of PEOPLE's 2022 Beautiful Issue. Mirren revealed that she was absolutely "gobstruck" to be selected at the age of 76!
Helen Mirren Says 'I Never Considered Myself Beautiful'
Although she has been the L'Oreal Paris spokesperson since 2014, Mirren was shocked to learn that she was selected to star on the cover of their Beautiful Issue. "I was absolutely sort of gobstruck, as we say in England," she explained. "I never considered myself 'beautiful.' And [at] my age! So I was amazed."
The Oscar-winner continued, "Don't get me wrong — I love beauty and I love looking at beautiful things. But I don't like the word beauty [as it's] associated with the beauty industry—makeup and products, skincare, and all the rest of it — because I think it excludes the vast majority of us who are not beautiful."
She explained that "there are incredibly beautiful people in the world, and it's an absolute delight to look at them, male or female. Beautiful people are a wonder to behold. But most of us are not beautiful. We have other stuff, which is just as powerful as beauty. And I would like to see us celebrate those things."
Instead, Mirren would rather choose a different word instead of "beautiful." She said, "I love the word swagger because I think swagger means I'm confident in myself, I'm presenting myself to the world, I'm enjoying the world around me. I think what is called the beauty industry should be called the swagger industry. We're giving people swagger."
Helen Mirren Reveals That She Still Gets Nervous When Meeting New People
Mirren has worked with many different people during her five-decade career in the industry. She has over 140 credits to her name and has several coming out this year, including "The Duke," "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," "Golda," and "White Bird: A Wonder Story." However, she revealed that she still gets nervous about forgetting her lines and meeting new people, even after 55 years of experience!
"I get very nervous about the day-to-day process," she explained. "And meeting and dealing with new people. And not knowing whether I am going to remember my lines or not. I just get very frightened until I get into the swing of things and then I kind of relax."
She explained that most of her nerves usually go away once the movie has finished filming, because, "Once it's done I'm not nervous because it's done, you can't pull it back. It's the doing of it that I get nervous about." She also admitted that she doesn't read film reviews, even the positive ones.
She did confess that "you have to continue working on yourself to a certain extent" but explained that most of her confidence simply came with growing up.
"Getting older. It happens. Other people call it growing older, but I call it growing up," she explained. "And one of the advantages is that you literally get to be wiser. Life is a constant process of learning."
"Fast and Furious" costar Vin Diesel also had nothing but positive things to say about Mirren when being interviewed for the issue.
"What makes Dame Helen Mirren so beautiful? I'll tell you," Diesel told the outlet. "She has a charisma that is timeless. She has looks to kill and always has. She has a jovial spirit. But I think the thing that is most attractive about Dame Helen Mirren is the way she makes you feel. She always makes you feel appreciated and loved. And for that, I Iove her forever."
Sadly, in other Helen Mirren-related news, her stepson passed away earlier this month. She paid tribute to the "Star Wars" actor in a touching tribute on Instagram.
