Dame Helen criticises Tinker Tailor

The Press Association

(UKPA) – 12 hours ago

Dame Helen Mirren has criticised box office hit Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for including hardly any women.
Kathy Burke is the sole female in the predominantly male cast of Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds and John Hurt.
Helen - who played a spy in Red and a Mossad agent in her new film The Debt - reckons there should have been more ladies involved, telling the Times: "The secret service always had a huge number of women working for them, and they played major roles in real life. But they were ignored for this film!
"How many women were in that? I mean, come on. There weren't any women in the 70s?"
The 66-year-old loves being an action star, and fancies doing more in the future.
"I'm dying to be a full-time action movie heroine. Because the great thing about action is that you don't have to act," she said.
"It's much harder to do a long speech from The Tempest than a bit of action. You might get a bit bruised and so forth, but taking a few ibuprofen sorts that out."
In Red, which also stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, Helen gets to grips with a 50-calibre machine gun.
"Using that gun was horribly fun. Us girls don't get to do that sort of thing too often, but you suddenly get this dangerous and visceral pleasure that's rather disturbing."