Helen Mirren shuts down this sexist interviewer — in 1975
There ain't nothing like a Dame. And there hasn't been for at least 41 years.
Dame Helen Mirren, light of our lives and Fast and Furious star, has been shaming sexists and taking names her entire life. And now we have some proof of just how long.
A recently unearthed video of an interview with British talk show host Michael Parkinson in 1975 is making the rounds online, and for good reason (it has at various times been reported on for its overt sexism). At the time, Mirren was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and was about to play the part of Lady Macbeth.
"You are, in quotes, a serious actress," Parkinson says to Mirren in the interview. “In quotes?” asks Mirren, a little dumbfounded. “What do you mean in quotes? How dare you.”
“Do you find it to be fact that, what could be best described as your equipment hinders you in that pursuit (of being considered a serious actress)?” Parkinson continues, in a manner that one could describe as "digging his own grave."
“I’d like you to explain what you mean by my equipment in greater detail,” Mirren says, without missing a beat.
“Your physical attributes,” says Parkinson.
“You mean my fingers?” Mirren says, and you can almost see the fire emojis punctuating it.
Parkinson finally says he was referring to her "figure" and Mirren frankly asks, “Because serious actresses can’t have big bosoms, is that what you mean?”
“I think it might detract from the performance,” Parkinson says, trying to save himself, “if you know what I mean.”
“I can’t say that would necessarily be true. I mean what a crummy performance if people are obsessed with the size of your bosom over anything else. I would hope that the performance and the play and the living relationship between all the people on the stage and all the people in the audience would overcome such . . . boring questions, really.”
“That’s the first talk show I’d ever done,” the actress explained to The Telegraph in 2011. “I was terrified. I watched it and I actually thought, bloody hell! I did really well. I was so young and inexperienced. And he was such a (expletive) sexist old fart. He was. He denies it to this day that it was sexist, but of course he was.”
Mirren had the chance to confront Parkinson about the interview while promoting her role in The Queen, and continued her pattern of pulling no punches.
“I hated you,” Mirren said. “I thought you were a sexist person for mentioning my breasts.”
Do you think Mirren might come to our next Thanksgiving to deal with all our family disputes? That'd be great.