Helen Mirren Speaks Against Sexism in Hollywood While Receiving the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award

“The Queen” movie star Helen Mirren speaks openly against the sexism practice in Hollywood as she received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award during the Power 100 Women in Entertainment breakfast event at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The British actress who recently starred in the movie “Red” said, "I resent in my life the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of some very brilliant female ones. However, with all due respect to you many brilliant and successful women in this room, really not too much has changed in... Hollywood filmmaking that continues to worship at the altar of the 18 to 25-year-old male and his penis.”

"Quite small, I always think,“ said the actress laughing with the crowd.

During the event, Mirren emphasized that Hollywood’s treatment to women never changed all through history. The only thing that changed was their portrayal of a woman in the entertainment industry.

Mirren said "Virtually every drama made for film, stage or television has 20 male characters to one, two or maybe if you're lucky three female characters. And that includes Shakespeare, incidentally.” Then she joked about her role as Prospera (formerly a male character named Prospero) in Julie Taymor's new film version of The Tempest. "I had to nick one of their roles."

Meanwhile, when the actress was asked about her beauty and her being regarded as a role model in Hollywood for having sex appeal in her 60s she modestly answered, "I'm not beautiful; I clean up nice ... (but) the fact that I look good at the age I am is bloody irrelevant,”

The veteran actress also said that she feel a bit cross. “We have to let go of this crap. It creates even more pressure on women, and I certainly don't want to be a part of that.”

Furthermore, Mirren also shared her personal background, “My father was born in Russia and came to England when he was two years old. So in a sense, I grew up the daughter of an immigrant. My parents had a love of the arts, but they came from a lower-income background. My father was a taxicab driver in my early days,” she said.

“Around about 13 or 14, I decided that I wanted to be an actress. I knew I wanted to engage in the world of the imagination, but it was not economically feasible for me to study acting, so I went to a teachers’ training college.”

Helen Mirren truly deserves due recognition for her personal and professional achievements in the  entertainment industry and Halle Berry is right, the veteran actress paved the way for older female stars to remain at work in Hollywood.

Power 100 Women in Entertainment breakfast is an annual event that brings together some of the most powerful female in the entertainment industry.