Helen Mirren Gets Harsh on Hollywood

Dame Helen Mirren certainly likes to speak her mind and we love her for that. The Academy Award-winning star of The Queen has jeered at her native Britain for their supposed lack of decency. Now, Hollywood is on her hit list, Digital Spy reports.

Mirren was in Los Angeles on Tuesday (December 7) to accept the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award. There, she voiced her thoughts on Hollywood's men-centric scene and how the majority of male actors receive better roles as compared to their female counterparts.

"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 via AFP. "However, with all due respect to you many brilliant and successful women in this room, really not too much has changed in… Hollywood filmmaking that continues to worship at the altar of the 18 to 25-year-old male and his penis."

Mirren's next role on the big screen comes in Julie Taymor's adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, opening Stateside this weekend. Taymor (Frida, Across the Universe) changes up gender roles for the story's main protagonist, which sees Mirren as Prospera.

The American filmmaker recently told The Hollywood Reporter that she didn't consider a particular actor when writing for the original role of Prospero. But over time, she pondered ideal actresses instead.

"I thought about Helen and I thought, 'Why not?,'" Taymor said. "She could play it, and she’s one of the greats. So it was really about knowing that she could play that part and that it could work for a woman."

Click here for the BBC's video coverage of Mirren accepting her award.