Helen Mirren was the recipient of a prestigious leadership award at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast at The Beverly Hills Hotel in California last week.
Halle Berry, last year’s winner, presented Mirren with this year’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.
The award honored Oscar-winner Mirren’s contribution to film and society.
Besides film, Mirren advocates community awareness of Parkinson’s disease and is outspoken on the rights and roles of women in film—and more broadly society.
Mirren’s success as an actor endures through age and, as Berry said, “The last bastion of civil rights in the movie business is ageism, and Helen, you have single-handedly, all by yourself, broken down that barrier.”
In accepting her award, Mirren noted the short careers of women in the film industry. “I resent in my life the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of some very brilliant female ones,” she said.
“I’ve seen too many of my brilliant colleagues who worked non-stop through their 20s, 30s, and 40s only to find a complete desert in their 50s. And no work means no income. You can’t earn enough to keep yourself.”
Mirren is currently starring as Prospera, a female version of Prospero, in Julie Taymor’s adaptation of The Tempest.
Halle Berry, last year’s winner, presented Mirren with this year’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.
The award honored Oscar-winner Mirren’s contribution to film and society.
Besides film, Mirren advocates community awareness of Parkinson’s disease and is outspoken on the rights and roles of women in film—and more broadly society.
Mirren’s success as an actor endures through age and, as Berry said, “The last bastion of civil rights in the movie business is ageism, and Helen, you have single-handedly, all by yourself, broken down that barrier.”
In accepting her award, Mirren noted the short careers of women in the film industry. “I resent in my life the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of some very brilliant female ones,” she said.
“I’ve seen too many of my brilliant colleagues who worked non-stop through their 20s, 30s, and 40s only to find a complete desert in their 50s. And no work means no income. You can’t earn enough to keep yourself.”
Mirren is currently starring as Prospera, a female version of Prospero, in Julie Taymor’s adaptation of The Tempest.
