Since 2014, Dame Helen Mirren has served as a brand ambassador for L’Oreal skincare.

While serving on a L’Oreal skincare panel in Cannes this past Wednesday, according to the Sun, the 72-year old actress held nothing back as she discussed what really matters to her.

In typical Helen Mirren style, her comments were candid. Let’s take a look at her L’Oreal ad and then we’ll see what she really thinks…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XanitYoSTA

The Quote that Caught Everyone’s Attention

“I’m an eternal optimist. I know that when I put my moisturizer on it probably does f*** all, but it just makes me feel better. I’ve always said to L’Oreal, as well, that I will only do what makes me feel better.”

Her remarks come only months after becoming the face of L’Oreal Paris’ Age Perfect moisturizer line, but keeping it real is what Helen does best.

When joining L’Oreal, this Oscar, Emmy, and Tony award winning actor insisted that none of her commercials would ever be digitally retouched to erase wrinkles.

Speaking Out on Ageism

The outspoken Triple Crown of Acting achiever has never held back from speaking her mind when it comes to topics that are important to her.

In 2015, Helen was quite vocal about the “ridiculous” Hollywood casting choices which paired older men with younger female love interests. At The Wrap’s Power Women Breakfast, Mirren proclaimed, “We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

Decades of Battling Sexism

Thanks to a 1975 interview video gone viral, Ms. Mirren is perhaps best known for speaking out against sexism. In an interview by British broadcaster Michael Parkinson, a young Helen Mirren can be seen gracefully holds her own against a line of sexist and degrading questioning.

Being asked if her “big bosoms” detract from her performance and if being so “sluttishly erotic” kept her from being regarded as a “serious actor”, Mirren went dig for dig with the older male talk show host and didn’t let him off the hook.

Making him repeat himself and referring to his line of questioning as “boring,” the then 20-something actress proved Parkinson easy to undermine and forced him to move on to new questions. Here’s the original interview.

Years later at The Wrap she was quoted saying, “I don’t like the word sexual. There are people who are sexual and [others] who are less sexual. But there’s got to be another word. ‘Sexual’ is so limiting.”

Do you agree with Helen Mirren that you should do things that make you feel good? Do you embrace her desire to just do what makes you feel better? Does her 1975 interview make you glad that society has progressed from such sexist views or make you cringe that we haven’t moved farther from this oppressive behavior? Join the conversation!