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Helen Mirren prefers it if you don't call her sexy

At age 69, Helen Mirren is not only an Oscar-winning actress, she's also considered an exemplar of how to age well and remain darned sexy.
/ Source: TODAY

At age 69, Helen Mirren is not only an Oscar-winning, very-much-in-demand actress (who is currently starring in the new film "Woman in Gold" and on Broadway in "The Audience"), she's also considered an exemplar of how to age well and remain darned sexy.

But don't call her that. "Sexy" is not a word Mirren cottons to very well.

"It's totally overused and limiting," she said of the description during a visit to TODAY Tuesday. "It limits human qualities into this very narrow, rather mundane and banal little place, and human beings are so much more complex and interesting and deep and everything than that. I would wish there was a better word than that to express something deeper and richer."

But is she at least aware of the fact that she is sexy? Heavens, no.

"Of course not," she laughed. "You can't be conscious of that, that would be terrible, wouldn't it? We all have two people in us: We have the person that other people see us to be and the person that we are. ... And you just have to let other people see what they see in you, and let them get on with it."

TODAY

Fair enough, but anyone who tuned in to see Mirren on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" Monday may have seen a third side to the actress, who was talked into inhaling some helium just before giving an acceptance speech for a fake award.

Don't miss either video!

"Woman in Gold" opens in select theaters April 1, then will open nationwide on April 10.

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