Dame Helen Mirren thinks death should be a "celebration" of life.
Dame Helen Mirren has shared her opinion on life and death
The 76-year-old actress admitted that it is impossible to hide from the thought of death as she urged others to be more open about the idea of their mortality and claimed that death is a "celebration of liberation."
She said: "[Death] is not something you can hide from at my age. Why not have an open discussion and see death as full of life and a celebration of liberation?"
The Oscar-winning star went on to explain that she wants to embrace life until the very last days as she insisted that life is a "gift" that she still enjoys.
Speaking in an interview with Britain's Best magazine, she added: "I want to continue with passion for life and love until the last days. I see life as a gift and I enjoy it. I embrace it."
'The Duke' actress - who has been married to acclaimed director Taylor Hackford since 1997 - also admitted that while she was "uncomfortable" with being labelled as a sex symbol early on in her career, those days spurred her onto more "challenging" roles and is partly responsible for the image she conveys now.
She said: "I used to think of [being called a sex symbol] as a rather uncomfortable backpack that I was having to carry. As I got older, I started to enjoy it, to play with my image. But when I was younger, it was really a pain in the butt. I always said to myself: it's the work that counts. I think it's partly why early on in my career I concentrated on becoming, for lack of a better word, a classical actress. [I thought] Keep doing this challenging work, and the other thing will hopefully drop away."
Tagged in Taylor Hackford