Helen Mirren, 80: ‘I Hate the Word ‘Feisty’’

Actress Helen Mirren wants you to do her a favor.

Do not talk down to her.

“One thing that I find galling as I get older is the sort of patronizing condescension: ‘Oh, that’s so sweet,’” she said to People recently.

The Oscar winner also said “feisty” is a word she despises.

“I’m alive. Don’t give me those sort of awful labels,” Mirren says. “My spirit is the age that I am.”  

Regarding birthdays, the star of The Queen, who turned 80 on July 26, doesn’t care for making too much of them.

“Honestly, I don’t celebrate birthdays,” Mirren said. “I don’t recognize them because life just rolls on.”

But she does expect to be “very, very nicely treated” on her special day, specifically with a “cup of tea in bed in the morning.”

The former AARP The Magazine cover star has been enjoying an impressive run with roles in streaming shows MobLand and 1923. She’ll also star in the upcoming Netflix mystery film The Thursday Murder Club.

When speaking to AARP in March, Mirren said “no” to the idea of retirement.

“With COVID and with the two strikes, the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike, we all slowed down for two or three years, actually,” she said.

“It was quite a long period of time where there was very little work for anyone. We were all finding other ways of being, if you like. And now, of course, coming out of that, it means that there’s a great demand out there probably for, as they say, product — I hate that word — for material.

“So there is a lot of work at the moment. But no, not particularly. I’m sure one day I’ll think, Ugh, I’ve had enough of this, but not yet!”