Seductive in sequins, it’s Dame Helen Mirren at 72! Oscar-winning actress looks decades younger in new photoshoot (but admits she is glad her sex symbol status is 'fading')

  • In a new interview for Rhapsody magazine, Dame Helen Mirren opens up about her carer
  • The Oscar-winning actress is seen standing next to a car with her arms crossed for the glamorous photoshoot 
  • She said she wants to experience this world as a younger person as being a women in the 60's and 70's was 'hideous'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 19:01 EST, 31 December 2017 | Updated: 04:40 EST, 1 January 2018

 A leopard print jacket, dark sunglasses and strappy stilettos – it sounds like the sort of outfit typically found on teenagers or women in their twenties.

But this is Dame Helen Mirren posing for her latest magazine shoot aged 72.

The British actress is seen standing next to a car with her arms crossed for the glamorous photoshoot for United Airlines’ magazine, Rhapsody.

Dame Helen Mirren, 72, looks decades younger as she poses for her latest magazine shoot but admits she is glad that her sex-symbol status is 'fading'

Dame Helen Mirren, 72, looks decades younger as she poses for her latest magazine shoot but admits she is glad that her sex-symbol status is 'fading'

Dame Helen opened up about the early years of her career and said the ‘60s and ‘70s was a ‘hideous time’ as ‘girls and women became sexual objects’

Dame Helen opened up about the early years of her career and said the ‘60s and ‘70s was a ‘hideous time’ as ‘girls and women became sexual objects’

In one sultry image she gazes off into the distance looking incredible in a classy black dress. She said:‘I do wish I was 30 now. Not because I wish I was 30! Not that. But I want to have more of my life in the world we’re going to have for the next 40 or 50 years, for women'

In one sultry image she gazes off into the distance looking incredible in a classy black dress. She said:‘I do wish I was 30 now. Not because I wish I was 30! Not that. But I want to have more of my life in the world we’re going to have for the next 40 or 50 years, for women'

In a wide-ranging interview for the magazine, Dame Helen opened up about the early years of her career and said the ‘60s and ‘70s was a ‘hideous time’ as ‘girls and women became sexual objects’.

She said: ‘I do wish I was 30 now. Not because I wish I was 30! Not that. But I want to have more of my life in the world we’re going to have for the next 40 or 50 years, for women.

‘I just want to experience this world as a younger person. I had to go through the ‘60s and ‘70s, which was hideous. It was a hideous time for women, really because the impact of birth control and the so-called sexual explosion, which was actually dreadful for girls and women.

‘It was the High Hefner attitude – girls and women became sexual objects. I hated Hugh Hefner and everything he represented.’

Now an outspoken advocate for gender equality, the Oscar-winning actress, who is also seen dressed in a tight-fitting above-the-knee sequin dress for the glamorous shoot, also spoke about her sex-symbol status.

She said: ‘I’ve had to come to terms with it over a long periods of time. Luckily it’s fading now.’

She added: ‘Finally fading. And what does it mean really? You know, what does it mean? Does it mean that people want to f*** you? Because that’s rather ghastly, isn’t it, the thought of all those weird strangers? I’ve always found it a very tacky and unpleasant tag, but it’s one I had to kind of grit my teeth and bear for a long, long time.’

Dame Helen said that she has come to terms with her sex-symbol image but says it is 'luckily' fading

Dame Helen said that she has come to terms with her sex-symbol image but says it is 'luckily' fading

 Dame Helen, who was appointed a DBE for Services to the Performing Arts in 2003, said in the interview that she hated Hugh Hefner and everything he represented

 Dame Helen, who was appointed a DBE for Services to the Performing Arts in 2003, said in the interview that she hated Hugh Hefner and everything he represented

In the interview, the actress, who played Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, said she made a decision early on in her career to be ‘open and as forthright as I could be’.

She said: ‘Quite early in my career, I made a decision to be as open and as forthright as I could be. It’s dangerous to be too forthright, but I never wanted that carefully constructed public image.’

Dame Helen, who was appointed a DBE for Services to the Performing Arts in 2003, will next be seen as a cancer patient who goes on a road trip with her husband in The Leisure Seeker.

Dame Helen said: ‘Quite early in my career, I made a decision to be as open and as forthright as I could be. It’s dangerous to be too forthright, but I never wanted that carefully constructed public image.’

Dame Helen said: ‘Quite early in my career, I made a decision to be as open and as forthright as I could be. It’s dangerous to be too forthright, but I never wanted that carefully constructed public image.’

Dame Helen’s career started in the theatre in her early twenties. She soon took on TV and film roles but her big break wasn’t until 1992 when she played Detective Inspector Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.

By the time the show concluded in 2006, Dame Helen had taken home five BAFTA Awards and several Emmy Award nominations for her performance on the show, including a win in 1996 for Outstanding Lead Actress. 

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