Helen Mirren Won't Eat or Drink Before a Red Carpet If She's Wearing a 'Very Tight Dress'

Beauty is pain?

Helen Mirren made a shocking confession in a new interview when asked how she prepares for a big red carpet event.

"I definitely don’t eat, and I definitely don’t drink if I’m wearing a very tight dress," the star, 78, admitted. "It’s the classic stuff."

"It’s a great honour to wear these dresses, the artwork that goes into them is just extraordinary. It’s an incredible experience to wear one of those dresses, even just once in one’s lifetime," she noted of designer pieces. "But it’s not necessarily comfortable!"

The Oscar winner explained she goes to such great lengths because "for me, the red carpet is a brief theatrical moment and I like to make it that. I’ve done a lot of theatre and the red carpet really is a theatre."

"I love dressing up and I love costumes, that’s partly why I’m an actress," added the British icon.

For the Cannes Film Festival this year, Mirren had a few makeup artists and a jaw-dropping six hairdressers working on her at once.

"Yes, the preparation is quite extensive, but it’s like poetry in motion watching them all work," the movie star spilled. "If you don’t look good at the end of that, then shame on you."

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The star added that she's likely to temporarily change up her hair color again at some point.

"The great thing is you can be my colour at six o’clock, bright pink or bright blue by eight o’clock and then my colour again at 11 o’clock the same night," Mirren shared. "The stuff is great, especially when you have white hair like mine."

All of that being said, the Prime Suspect alum said she's "always been slightly against beauty as a generic term."

"I love to look at beautiful people, it’s nothing but pleasure to see a beautiful man or a beautiful woman, but it’s not all of us," she acknowledged. "A tiny section of us are beautiful. The rest of us are great looking."

Mirren called herself "sort of okay-looking," admitting she doesn't think she's anywhere near Naomi Campbell's level.

However, despite anyone's physical appearance, she believes everyone has "swagger."

"We can all have swagger, we can all put on an outfit or some make-up that gives us that 'Oh f--- it, I’m going out there, I’m going to have a good time' feeling," she explained.

The Telegraph spoke to Mirren.