The Oscar winner stars in Kate Winslet’s directorial debut Goodbye June, which features a family saying their final farewell to their dying mother and arrives on Netflix on Christmas Eve
18:00, 24 Dec 2025
Helen Mirren real age and very blunt advice on getting older(Image: Karwai Tang, WireImagevia Getty Images)
Dame Helen Mirren shared some advice on ageing, warning of “complications” that come with it. The Oscar winning actress is now 80, and became an octogenarian in July this year.
Back in May, as part of a campaign with Age UK, Helen spoke about getting older. The charity had started a campaign to encourage people between the ages of 50 and 65 to exercise more as there was a “major concern” about people’s physical health as they aged. Likewise encouraged younger people to make “little changes now to help them later in life”.
As an Age UK ambassaor, she added: “It’s no secret that for many, getting older will come with its complications – specifically there will likely be aches and pains along the way, getting out and about and living as independently as we’re used to in our younger years may not be as easy to do.”
READ MORE: M&S shoppers rush to buy ‘great value’ gift set slashed to £4 ahead of ChristmasREAD MORE: Kate Winslet shares ‘regret’ over teenage eating struggles after drama teacher’s weight commentHelen Mirren encouraged younger people to get fit(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Helen said she wanted to support the charity in pushing people in their 50s to take care of their physical health, and emphasised that exercise didn’t ahve to be “joining a gym” but could instead involve “a short walk or yoga”, which she herself enjoys. The important thing was they we should “embrace” ageing rather than “fear” it.
On Christmas Eve, the 80 year old’s latest film became available to watch on Netflix. Goodbye June, directed by and starring Kate Winslet, sees Helen as June, an elderly and dying woman.
The film follows June’s four children as they prepare to say goodbye to her at Christmas. Kate plays the second daughter, Julia, whilst Toni Collette plays her older sister, Helen. The other two siblings are played by Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough, while June’s husband is played by Timothy Spall.
Ahead of the film’s cinematic release, Kate spoke openly about her views on nepotism in the acting industry and the term ‘nepo baby’. Talking to the BBC, she said her children were not “getting a leg up” in their careers because of her, despite Goodbye June’s screenwriter being her son Joe Anders.
Helen stars in Kate Winslet’s directorial debut(Image: AP)
“I don’t like the nepo baby term because these kids are not getting a leg up,” Winslet insisted. “You know, [Joe] would say to me, ‘I don’t want people to think that this film is just being made because you’re my mum.’ The film would have been made with or without me, the script is so, so good.”
She added that there are lots of industries where children follow their parents into careers, such as law and medicine, without being called ‘nepo babies’. Kate insisted that her connections in the industry does not translate in jobs for her children.
Her opinions received some criticism online as people felt she was not “acknowledging” the way having an Oscar winner as your mother would help in the film industry. “What a disappointing take,” said one.
“Nepotism gives you a leg up, it helps open the door. Lots of people don’t have that. It’s just about acknowledging that. And the term helps identify a huge problem in the entertainment industry where for people without connections of money it is so so so difficult to break in.”
Another added: “This is so short sighted! How many 21 year olds make feature films?” A third said: ““This is delusional and insulting to every young performer who lacks famous parents or the necessary contacts to get opportunities.”
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