Dame Helen Mirren is an Oscar-winning actress and widely admired as one of the most talented – as well as beautiful – women in Hollywood, but it turns out she’s been through insecurities just like the rest of us.

In an interview with Allure, she revealed that as a young actress in the 1960s, she was unhappy with her curvy figure, comparing it to the waif-like aesthetic of the decade.

‘It was the time of Twiggy, and I did not look like a twig’ recalls Helen. ‘My cheeks were too fat, legs were too short, breasts too big’.

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Helen continued: ‘I fell into the cliché of sexiness: Blonde hair, t**s, waist, which I hated at the time because it was not fashionable. You had to be thin and have a cigarette and only wear black. And I just never fitted into that look’.

Dame Helen previously stood up to Michael Parkinson when, on his BBC chat show in 1975, he asked if her figure was precluding her from becoming a ‘serious’ actress.

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Now, the Oscar winner says she wishes she’d been less ‘polite’ as a young woman, and answered back to people more often.

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She also spoke of embracing feminism as she got older, saying: ‘I wasn't into the very didactic feminism of the 60s and 70s because I liked wearing make-up and high heels.

‘That was a no-no. It was sort of "That's playing to the patriarchy."

‘I was thinking, "Well, I just really like it". Then as feminism developed, they realised you can like nice dresses, high-heeled shoes, and make-up.

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‘That's not stopping you from being feminist.’

Read the full interview here.

(Images: Getty)

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