It’s official: Helen Mirren is a living legend.
The 71-year-old dame was bestowed with Elle’s Legend Award Monday evening in Los Angeles, at the magazine’s 23rd annual Women in Hollywood awards ceremony. Other honorees of the night included Kathy Bates, Lupita Nyong’o and Anna Kendrick, to name a few.
Of all the speeches, it was Mirren’s which seemed to captivate the most — remarking to attendees: “To make you proud that you chose to honor me tonight, I am going to be the nastiest of all nasty women.”
The actress went on to offer some sage advice: “I’m just quickly going to give you a few tips to get through life,” she said, “because, obviously, you know I’m quite old so I’ve lived quite a lot of life. Feel free to pass these along, my top five tips.”
Here they are:
1. Never drink alcohol unless you are celebrating something, upset on something or if it’s a day that ends with the letter ‘Y.’ And never drink when you are driving.
2. There are no rules about love, I don’t believe, but don’t be in a rush to get married, honestly. I married Taylor [Hackford] much later in my life and it’s worked out just great. Give your partner the freedom and support to achieve their ambitions. Very important and that goes both ways, men and women.
3. At the blackjack table, always split aces, eights and nines.
4. Connect with friends daily, I don’t mean on Facebook. Better to have three great friends than 300 friends on social media. Friends you can really talk to.
5. And finally, ignore anyone who judges the way you look, especially if he or she is some anonymous miserable creep, lurking on the internet or is a bloated, small headed dinosaur-y handed candidate for president.
