Helen Mirren stunned her fellow leading ladies by announcing that none one of them was beautiful when they gathered recently to discuss the craft of acting.
โNone of us are beauties,” Mirren, 79, told the group โ which also included Kathy Bates, Parker Posey, Niecy Nash-Betts, Keri Russell and Cristin Milioti โย during The Hollywood Reporterโs annual roundtable of dramatic female actors.
The conversation about appearances started when the panel discussed some of the bad advice they received during their careers. “I was told to have a nose job in my 20s,” Mirren recalled.
โSomeone said, โYouโll never get work if you donโt have a nose job.โ I said no. I didnโt want to be a pretty actress anyway. I elected to be not so pretty,โ she added.
Mirren’s recollection surprised the others, including Nash-Betts, 55, who said while she likes looking her best in real life, she’s all for looking “like a dog” onscreen if a role demands it.
“I feel sorry for people who have been beautiful their whole life,” said Nash-Betts. “Because when thatโs what youโre known for, you got to keep it up for your whole life? I donโt know what Iโd do.”
At that point, Bates, 76, chimed in to say that no matter what an actor really looks like, they are “beautiful” when they deliver “an amazing performance.”
“They’re hot!” agreed Milioti, 39.
That’s when Mirren weighed in on the group’s attractiveness. “Looking at our faces around this table, none of us are beautiful,” she told the others.
Bates, who’s made headlines for both her starring role in CBS’s “Matlock” reboot and her 100-pound weight loss, shot back, “Oh, get out of town! I feel more beautiful than I have in my entire life.”
But Mirren insisted. “Weโre not. None of us are beauties. We all have really different faces, very interesting faces,” she said.
Russell, 49, asked Mirren if she meant none of them were “model beautiful.”
“We all know what ‘beautiful’ is like,” Mirren replied.
Russell then made everyone the table laugh by quipping, “Kathyโs like, ‘Speak for yourself.'”
