Helen Mirren, Oscar-winning actress and star of the new action flick "RED 2," is no stranger to the entertainment industry, and now she's opening up about being a woman in Hollywood and the interesting advice she would have given her daughters.
"If I'd had children and had a girl, the first words I would have taught her would have been "f*** off" because we weren't brought up ever to say that to anyone, were we?" she said in an interview with The Daily Mail. "And it's quite valuable to have the courage and the confidence to say, "No, f*** off, leave me alone, thank you very much."
Mirren said the advice would have come in handy when she first started acting in the 1960s.
"The '60s and '70s were pretty ghastly, I think," the 67-year-old said of working as a female actress at the time. "And into the '80s, as an actress, you would be the only female on set, apart from the continuity person, who was always a woman and maybe your own personal wardrobe person.
"Otherwise it was completely male, and a particular kind of testosterone-y male that was quite hard to deal with," she continued. "You had to have a sense of humor [and] put your head down. You were never going to be one of the boys if you know what I mean."
Now in 2013, Mirren is taking on a strong female role that shows how much things have changed.
In "RED 2," the follow-up to the 2010 film also starring Bruce Willis and John Malkovich, she plays sniper Victoria.
"Apart from my moralistic feelings about guns, it looked like a lot of fun," the actress said of taking on the role. "I love being a badass. It's just the best."
