Helen Mirren says it is 'shameful' that just 12 women have won Nobel Peace Prize

Actress Helen Mirren, acknowledged it as “an extraordinary moment” when three women were honoured with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday night, but said it was “shameful” that very few women had ever been given the award, since its inception in 1901.

The 66-year-old hosted the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway along with American actress Rosario Dawson held in honour of this year’s winners - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women’s rights activist Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia, and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman, from Yemen.

Speaking before the event, she said the award marks an ‘‘extraordinary moment in the history of women’’ but looking at the figures statistically it was very “shameful” that only a handful of women have won the Nobel Peace Prize so far.

‘‘slightly shameful statistically that only 12 women have won it in 112 years, when you think how important women historically have always been, specifically in terms of peace,’’ The Telegraph quoted her as saying.

‘‘It is only a step on a journey that women are taking, and hopefully in 20-30 years’ time we will be looking at a very different scenario in the world.

‘‘In my personal experience, wherever there was a force for the positive, for creativity, it was almost always led by women and they are doing it with no recognition and under very difficult circumstances.

‘‘It is so important for all of us to realise that these movements start in very, very small ways,’’ she added.

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."

I like my nude photos: Helen Mirren

Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren has laughed off suggestions that she is too old to pose naked.

The 64-year-old recently posed naked for a magazine shoot, which was criticised by some who said a woman of a certain age should not bare all, reports digitalspy.com.

"I like the photos because I thought they were naked in the proper sense of the word naked. I've got very little make-up on. There's no elaborate lighting. He (photographer) just used a flash. And it's simple and it's real. I think that was the intention of the photographs," said Mirren.

"They weren't intended remotely to be sexy, I think sex and nudity are really two different things, you see, but then I'm a bit weird like that. Sometimes nudity is sexy. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes being clothed is more sexy than being nude. I think people tend to get the two mixed up," she added.

Mirren is currently filming for "Love Ranch", which is being directed by her husband Taylor Hackford.

Helen Mirren's Wax Double

She’s one of the greatest actresses of her time, and now Helen Mirren has been honored with a wax figure of herself.

The 65-year-old actress came face to face with the impressive life-size figure at the unveiling at the London museum earlier on(May 11).

When the “Queen” actress revealed of her twin, it was so lifelike, even her husband, Taylor Hackford, was confused.

Mirren had been actively involved in making the figure since before Christmas and the outfit was donated by herself, after wearing it to the ITV3 Crime Thriller awards of 2008.

Helen Mirren finds easier to get nude with age

Dame Helen Mirren has said that shedding clothes on screen has gotten easier as she has got older.

The 64-year-old actress, who has stripped on screen in several films, has claimed that stripping in front of the camera is liberating and she gets through it by refusing to think of the response from male fans.

"As you get older naked stuff gets easier. It's more to do with the role than what men in the audience think. There's a liberation about it,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying. The Queen actress also discussed about her first sex encounters, admitting she is still angry about losing her virginity.

"It was the calumny of young men... My trustful romantic nature was badly let down, my feminism confronted... I am still p***ed off, actually,” she said in an interview with Broadcast Now.

However, despite her unsatisfying first sexual experience, Helen insists she has learned something from every man she has ever dated. "Ken Cranham, like all the men I have had a proper relationship with, left me a better person than he found me,” she said.