Dame Helen Mirren “I've Had To Stand My Ground In My Career”

Dame Helen Mirren is the very essence of “worth it”. The national treasure and L’Oreal ambassador explains why that message is as important today as ever, and how she wants to rebrand beauty

- Sonia Haria

SAY THE WORDS, “I’m worth it” out loud and I defy you not to flick your hair over one shoulder, lift your chin up a fraction and give an imaginary camera your most promising smile. Because as beauty taglines go, L’Oréal Paris’s is the most famous of them all, rising above mere slogan to be part of our everyday lexicon. This year marks the brand’s 50th year of championing and celebrating a woman’s worth and it’s for this anniversary that I’m granted a rare interview with one of the brand’s ambassadors, Dame Helen Mirren.

Speaking to me from her US home in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, where she lives with her film director husband Taylor Hackford, Mirren’s mind isn’t far from her British roots. “There’s a major lockdown in England, I hear? I talk to my sister frequently and my friends in London. It’s extraordinary.”

The 75-year-old Academy Award winner tells me about her life over the past year. “My husband and I have been married for 30-something years, you know, a very long time. But in all that time because of the nature of both of our work we’ve always been looking at suitcases, at packing. The suitcases are always on the floor ready to be packed or unpacked. We have never spent this amount of time together,” she laughs.