I am not a sex symbol

Helen Mirren has declared that she does not consider herself to be a sex symbol.

Scotland On Sunday quotes Mirren, who won both a BAFTA and an Oscar for The Queen, as saying that she isn't comfortable living up to other people's standards of beauty.

"I love to dress up. But that's just me. I don't want to lay it on anyone else," the star said.

She continued: "If I'm held up as some sort of symbol that you have to be sexy in your 60s, well why the f**k do you have to be sexy in your 60s? You don't. You just have to be content and happy and hopefully healthy."

The 65-year-old went on to assert that she's become more accepting of her physical imperfections as she's grown older.

"The weird thing is you get more comfortable in yourself even as time is giving you less reason for it," Mirren said. "When you're young and beautiful you're paranoid and miserable. And then you're older and it's ironic, really."

Mirren will next star with Russell Brand in a remake of the 1981 comedy Arthur, which is released on April 8 in the US and on April 22 in the UK.

Mirren thought of breaking her leg to avoid nude scene

Veteran actress Helen Mirren considered breaking her own leg in a bid to avoid shooting for a fully frontal nude film scene.

The Oscar winner was not ready to do a nude scene in Ken Russell's 1972 film "The Savage Messiah" and thought about harming herself to force the director to rethink the scene, reports imdb.com.

"The day I had to do that nude scene, where I had to walk completely b**lock naked down a flight of stairs, was awful. It was early days and I was so mortified, embarrassed and unhappy about it," she said.

"I remember that morning looking out of my trailer, this funky little caravan thing and wondered if I threw myself off the top step of the trailer I could manage to break my leg and not have to do the scene! I wouldn't like to do that today," she said.

Mirren fast became known for stripping off onscreen - but she insists it isn't as easy as it looks.

"It's never comfortable. The best thing would be if all the crew took their clothes off too and then you'd feel fine but it's never comfortable to be the only one without clothes on."