40 Celebrities We Need To Keep Safe From 2016

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – JUNE 23: Actress Helen Mirren giving a speech at The 3rd Genesis award at the Jerusalem Theater on June 23, 2016 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images for Genesis Prize Foundation)

20. Helen Mirren

Look up the word “elegance” in the dictionary, and you won’t see a picture of Helen Mirren. You won’t, but you should. On the red carpet, on the stage as she is in the photo above, and on the big screen, Mirren is a silhouette of perfect grace. Perhaps it’s because she’s British. Perhaps it’s because, at age 71, she has been in the acting business a long while and has had plenty of time to cultivate the perfect camera-ready presence.

Her attraction, however, is not simply due to the ladylike way she carries herself, or her clear English accent and low, honeyed tone of voice. Mirren has a spark, which is self-evident in the roles she plays. In 2007, she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in the drama, The Queen. This year, she has been filming on the set of a movie that is The Queen‘s polar opposite: Fast and Furious 8. Outside Hollywood, she can make a Budweiser seem like the finest beverage in the world, and the next day give a proper speech at a theater or awards ceremony as if she hadn’t set a toe out of her immaculate evening gown.

Helen Mirren is what every woman dreams of being: a queen and a badass. The only thing left is for her to achieve immortality. Don’t count her out of that yet.

-Elaine

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