Helen Mirren 'Life's Too Short And Precious To GIve A Stuff! '

The rule-breaking 72-year-old is determined to grow old fearlessly.

- Laura Evans

When it comes to living her life, Dame Helen Mirren has never been afraid to tear up the rule book. She married late, never had children, was reborn as a bona fide sex symbol in her 60s, laughs in the face of “beauty secrets” and if she has one regret it’s being “too bloody polite”.

“If people treat me like the age I am, I get absolutely insulted, really cross. I hate when people give up their seat for me. No, no, no, I don’t want your seat,” says the 72-year-old, who stuns on the latest cover of Allure magazine.

Despite being one of Hollywood’s most enduring sex symbols – who caused a media storm when she stepped out in a red bikini in southern Italy in 2008 at age 62 – Helen hates being labelled “beautiful”.

“Maybe we’re attractive, interesting or mesmerising, but 90 per cent of women are not what you’d call beautiful. Of course, beauty is inside, but still it’s a word,” says the Brit star, who is one of only 23 actors to have won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. “When it’s tied to pictures of people and amazing outfits on girls who can wear that stuff, it’s intimidating for the rest of us.”