Sex Talk

Mirren Brothel Role

Queen Elizabeth would surely not have approved

Helen Mirren has been filming in her husband Taylor Hackford’s new movie Love Ranch, in which she plays a madam running a brothel in 1970s Nevada. Getting into the part for Dame Helen meant coming to discover some mundane insights into men who pay for sex. “Funnily enough,” said Ms. Mirren, “the older prostitutes are the most popular, because the guys think they’re user-friendly. They’re comfortable with them, so they don’t feel intimidated. And guys who go to brothels are not the most successful guys in the world sexually, so that’s what they need. It’s all about not being intimidated.” And she lets it be known that she has never had children after being traumatized by watching a film of childbirth shown to her at her convent school. “It was horrific and it gave me an absolute horror of childbirth,” she said.