--- title: Watch Helen Mirren Deal With a Sexist Interview description: Recently unearthed footage of a 1975 interview of Helen Mirren shows her fighting back against questions about her body. canonical: https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-22T22:14:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:12.412Z og:title: Helen Mirren Has Been Dealing With Sexist Comments Since the 70s og:description: As proven by this recently unearthed interview from 1975 og:url: https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38adc34eefb80145/6988a3438e0601390b46739b/helen-mirren-sexist-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "Eye In The Sky" - UK Premiere - Red Carpet og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Helen Mirren Has Been Dealing With Sexist Comments Since the 70s twitter:description: As proven by this recently unearthed interview from 1975 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38adc34eefb80145/6988a3438e0601390b46739b/helen-mirren-sexist-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Helen Mirren Has Been Dealing With Sexist Comments Since the 70s by [Dylan Kickham/Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Dylan Kickham/Entertainment Weekly Aug 22, 2016 10:14 PM UTC  Helen Mirren arrives for the UK premiere of "Eye In The Sky" at Curzon Mayfair on April 11, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. Helen Mirren arrives for the UK premiere of "Eye In The Sky" at Curzon Mayfair on April 11, 2016 in London, United Kingdom.Karwai Tang—WireImage/Getty Images by [Dylan Kickham/Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Dylan Kickham/Entertainment Weekly Aug 22, 2016 10:14 PM UTC Helen Mirren has no time for sexist comments, as proven by a recently unearthed video from a 1975 interview. Mirren appeared on the British talk show _Parkinson_, in which host Michael Parkinson is shown questioning Mirren, then 30, about her body. Following an introduction in which Parkinson quotes a number of reviewers’ overtly sexual comments about Mirren, the actress walked onto the stage and referenced a phrase Parkinson used: “That was sluttishly erotic for you,” she said. The most tense moment of the interview comes when Parkinson asked if Mirren felt her body inhibits her from becoming a “serious actress.” “Because serious actresses can’t have big bosoms, is that what you mean?” Mirren fired back. “What a crummy performance if people are obsessed with the size of your bosom or anything else.” Mirren was appearing on the show to promote her role as Lady MacBeth in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of _MacBeth_. At the time, Mirren was a rising star in the stage world, and Parkinson asked about the men in that realm who interested her (which apparently meant men wearing leather jackets). “I strongly dislike men who look another way, like men in very nicely cut suits,” Mirren responded while looking at the suit-wearing Parkinson. Before the interview ended, Mirren got in another dig at the host after he asked her about nude scenes. “It’s a male chauvinist thing… you’ve heard that phrase before, I’m sure,” she said. Check out the first half of the interview above, and the second half below. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/22/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-70s) _originally appeared on_ [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/"},"headline":"Helen Mirren Has Been Dealing With Sexist Comments Since the 70s","datePublished":"2016-08-22T22:14:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:12.412Z","description":"As proven by this recently unearthed interview from 1975","url":"https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38adc34eefb80145/6988a3438e0601390b46739b/helen-mirren-sexist-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dylan Kickham/Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38adc34eefb80145/6988a3438e0601390b46739b/helen-mirren-sexist-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Eye In The Sky\" - UK Premiere - Red Carpet","caption":"\"Eye In The Sky\" - UK Premiere - Red Carpet","creditText":"Karwai Tang—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4462254/helen-mirren-sexist-interview-parkinson/","name":"Helen Mirren Has Been Dealing With Sexist Comments Since the 70s"}}]}] ```