EXCLUSIVE 'Women have come too far, we can’t be pulled back down' Helen Mirren talks misogyny, positivity about the future and her new passion project

A stalwart of stage and screen for most of her life, Dame Helen Mirren is an icon of our times. An Oscar-winner for her role in 2006 film The Queen - playing, of course, the late Queen Elizabeth II - she continues to be at the top of her game in recent roles on the likes of Mobland and The Thursday Murder Club.

But away from her career, the actor, who will soon turn 81, does worry about the state of the world today, and is concerned about the forces who want to turn the tide against the progress women have made.

Speaking in the July issue of woman&home, Helen says, ‘Misogyny, hatred and fear of women is always lurking and waiting to raise its head. And it’s raising its head again, through the manosphere and the religious right, whatever religion that is.

‘But parallel to that, you have more women in American law schools than men, and in my lifetime I have seen amazing change. The world expert on marine life comes on the television and it’s a woman!

‘But the forces that want to drag women back down and shut them up are always there, and I worry it’s rising again.’

However, she does remain positive. ‘I’m also hoping that women have come too far now, we can’t be pulled back down,’ she adds, and is excited to see what happens next. ‘What keeps me positive? The excitement of life. The development of life is extraordinary. On the one hand, amazing things happen, and then there are also constants that never change. It’s interesting to watch the new things bash against each other, or work with each other or fight each other. It’s incredible to witness.’

And in addition to an incredible back catalogue of work, Helen is now working on a passion project behind-the-scenes. With the help of friends in the south of Italy, where she and husband Taylor Hackford spend a lot of time, they are working together to fight a battle against a disease ruining the ancient olive groves of the region.

Xylella fastidiosa is a slow-burning disease, which came in through a port and has slowly been destroying groves that have been around for generations. With a group of locals, Helen and Taylor set up a campaign called Save The Olives, aiming to bring attention to the issue to a global audience.

‘There is a fix to help these wonderful trees, but it’s a slow fix. We graft them. In grafting you have to cut these ancient trees right back, then you graft, and two or three years later, they begin to grow. It’s not an immediate fix but it does at least save some of them.

We are also working with experts to develop species that can be immune. The olive oil company Filippo Berio is now working with us, which is massive, and we are working towards creating more Xylella-resistant species – it’s the way forward,’ she reveals.

Helen has a huge love for Italy going back decades, when she first began to learn Italian while starring in the film Caligula back in the late 1970s.

And she believes her background as the daughter of an immigrant - her father was part of the exiled Russian nobility and she was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff, while her mother was English and born in east London - is one of the reasons she feels so comfortable in the region.

‘There are many things I love about Italy. The history, the culture, the beauty. But in the end, it’s about people. The people of Salento are very different from the people in Milan, but there is a bond that ties them all together, and that’s to do with family, food and the love of community.

‘I’m the daughter of an immigrant, and our family has always slightly floated on the surface of community because we were never quite sure where we fitted. In Italy, there is this profound feeling of belonging to the culture, to the history and the traditions. That’s what I truly love about it, plus the generosity of spirit. If you’re paying for something and they’re giving you the change, they always round it up! And then very often they’ll give you a present, a little keychain or something – it’s in the culture. It makes you feel a part of it.’