Helen Mirren is one of those rare Hollywood women whose acting careers has continued to flourish as she ages.

The award-winning actor spoke with beauty journalist, Sali Hughes, in this weekend's Guardian, about what being beautiful means to her...although she “hates that word.”

Mirren, 70, famously accepted her contract with the french make-up brand L'Oreal Paris, on the condition that her photographs not be retouched.

"My whole life, one had these images of perfect, incredibly youthful girls shoved at you as what you should aspire to...and we’re not even talking about 25-year-olds, incidentally, we are talking about girls of 15. Who looks 15? It’s not fair,” she says.

Admitting that with youth comes beauty, Mirren says:

“I definitely don’t look better now than when I was young. Definitely not. Of course I looked better then. The great thing that happens as you age is that you don’t really give a flying fuck. I don’t look so good, but I don’t care.”

When asked if she thought herself beautiful, Mirren retorts:

“I hate that word. Kate Moss is beautiful, so is David Beckham, and I can appreciate a beautiful girl walking down the street. Young is beautiful. But the majority of us are something else, and I wish there was another word for it.”

Helen Mirren: “I hate the word beautiful, I wish there were another word for it”