Helen Mirren’s Beauty Advice

Dame Helen Mirren holds her stomach in to make her look good. The 65-year-old actress is often applauded for her toned midriff and says the secret behind it is to make sure she’s breathing in at all times.

“Holding your tummy in is another trick for making you look and feel good. I don’t know why, but I do, by nature, hold my tummy in.”

Although she has been happy to strip off in many movies, Helen admits she’s not entirely comfortable with her body and dresses to flatter it: “Bits of my body are all right, but bits of me are horrible. To be honest, anything from the waist down I don’t really like. Four-inch platforms give you great height and make your legs look unbelievably long. I used only to be able to get them in stripper shops, but now you can buy them everywhere - although, unfortunately, that means everyone else has discovered the trick too.”

The Oscar-winning actress also hit out designers who don’t cater for older women.“My big complaint is, why aren’t more dresses made with sleeves? I don’t want to wear a frumpy jacket over a sleeveless dress and it enrages me that it’s so difficult to find anything beautiful with sleeves. If you think of Elizabethan dresses or turn-of-the-century fashions, there are some amazing things you can do with sleeves, so why do so few designers put them on their dresses?”

Helen Mirren Gets Plenty of Beauty Sleep

Dame Helen Mirren sleeps as much as she can to stay young.

The 64-year-old actress - who is known for her enviable, toned figure - maintains her youthful appearance by shunning celebrity parties and getting a good night’s sleep.

“I sleep. When I’m working really hard, I don’t party. I don’t go to the bar after work. I don’t go out to restaurants. I just go to bed. If I’m on a film, I even try to catch some sleep in my trailer at lunchtime. I really try to sleep as much as possible. It’s very important and, as you get older, it becomes more so.”

The screen legend also takes vitamin tablets, sticks to a healthy diet and occasionally exercises. Helen claims she looks after her body for health reasons rather than to look good.

“I come and go about exercise. I do do it, but honestly, it’s not particularly a beauty thing, it’s just that as one gets older, one has to keep up one’s energy levels, and if you want to do that, you can’t stop exercising. But you know, we can’t actually stay young, and it’s ridiculous to pretend we can. The reality is that life goes on - tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock! I call it growing up and, to me, it doesn’t make much difference whether I’m 63 and three quarters, or 64 and a half. You know? You just carry on, and hopefully you get more sensible as you get older, which is all that really interests me.”