The actress landed the cover of this year's 'Beautiful' issue.
Helen Mirren isn't a fan of the word "beauty." The 76-year-old actress stars on the cover of People's 2022 Beautiful Issue, but the dame would like to offer up a name-change suggestion for the industry that the honor celebrates.
"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," Mirren tells the outlet. "I think what is called the beauty industry should be called the swagger industry. We're giving people swagger."
Mirren notes that she was "absolutely sort of gobstruck" to land the cover, largely because she's "never considered myself 'beautiful.'"
"Don't get me wrong -- I love beauty and I love looking at beautiful things," she says. "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."
"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," Mirren adds. "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."
For Mirren, her age is one thing that she considers to be powerful, as it's made her more confident in her work, even as she admits that she still gets "very nervous about the day-to-day process" of filmmaking.
"You have to continue working on yourself to a certain extent... Other people call it growing older, but I call it growing up," she says of facing her fears. "And one of the advantages is that you literally get to be wiser. Life is a constant process of learning."
RELATED CONTENT:
