In a powerhouse speech at The Wrap’s power breakfast in New York this Tuesday, Helen Mirren slammed Hollywood for its ageist tendencies, referencing Maggie Gyllenhaal’s recent revelation that she was deemed to old to play the love interest of a man almost twenty years her senior.
“It’s f**ing outrageous,” said the 70-year-old actress in her speech. "It’s ridiculous. Honestly. So annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all sat there watching James Bond as James Bond got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. Ugh, It’s so annoying.”
Mirren -- who the media often lauds for being sexy "despite" her age -- also commented on how she hates being referred to as “sexual,” saying “I don’t like the word sexual. There are people who are sexual, and who are less sexual. But there’s got to be another word. Sexual is so limiting.”
"Being powerful is so much more interesting than being beautiful," she continued.
Watch a clip from the speech below:
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