Helen mirren’s secrets to life, love and happiness | members only

It’s always a happy day when another Helen Mirren movie appears on the horizon. On Oct. 4, at the ever-youthful age of 79, she returned to the big screen in _White Bird_, based on a

best-selling graphic novel of the same name. Mirren plays a grandmother who teaches her grandson about kindness, telling him the tumultuous tale of her childhood in France during World War

II. We don’t know about you, but we can’t imagine a better remedy for 2024 than Mirren giving the entire world a lesson in kindness. And that’s just the beginning of the projects we can

expect soon from Mirren. She’s in the middle of shooting _The Thursday Murder Club_, based on the popular book series, where she and Pierce Brosnan, 71, Sir Ben Kingsley, 80, and Celia

Imrie, 72, keep retirement interesting by solving cold murder cases. It’s due in theaters next year. Mirren also wrapped filming on the second season of _1923_, a _Yellowstone_ prequel in

which she plays the powerful Dutton family matriarch Cara opposite Harrison Ford. Although Paramount+ hasn't shared an official release date, there are reports it could return as soon

as early 2025. The phenomenon that is Dame Mirren didn’t happen overnight. Her talent and ambition took her from the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played to packed houses in her early

20s, to her first substantial film, 1969’s _Age of Consent_ (with James Mason). More than half a century later, her résumé is like a master class in acting, including roles in the

critically acclaimed and beloved films _Gosford Park_ (2001), _The Long Good Friday_ (1980), _The Madness of King George_ (1994), _Trumbo_ (2015) and an Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth

in _The Queen_ (2006).  She hasn’t slowed down with age; if anything, Mirren seems to be getting warmed up. In 2022, she was featured on the cover of _People_ magazine’s Beautiful Issue.

She received a SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Life Achievement Award the same year, and as she joked during her acceptance speech, “I hate to say SAG at my age. It’s always S-A-G for me.” She

was also one of a handful of female icons (a list that included Viola Davis) with a doll created in her likeness by toymaker Mattel for International Women’s Day (March 8) this year. Mirren

has graced the pages of AARP publications no less than four times since 2007, and she’s always had something new and inspiring to teach us. We looked back at our favorite exchanges with the

great Dame over the years and collected some of her most memorable words of wisdom.  After more than five decades in Hollywood, Helen Mirren has learned to love her age. GROWING OLD ISN’T A

CURSE “The best thing about being over 70 is being over 70,” she told us. “Certainly when I was 45, the idea of being 70 was like, _Arghhh_! But you only have two options in life: Die young

or get old. There is nothing else. The idea of dying young when you’re 25 is kind of cool — a bit romantic, like James Dean. But then you realize that life is too much fun to do that. It’s

fascinating and wonderful and emotional. So you just have to find a way of negotiating getting old psychologically and physically.”