After their difficult interview in 1975, Dame Helen Mirren confessed she felt’sorry’ for Sir Michael Parkinson.
Their talk became television history as the late presenter, who died in August at the age of 88, frequently mentioned the then-30-year-old star’s ‘physical attributes’.
He went onto question her if her ‘equipment’ distracted spectators and even if serious actors could have ‘big bosoms’, which led to her dubbing Sir Michael ‘sexist’.
Dame Helen, now 78, labelled him a “sexist old fart” for his comments, and in 2019 she said she received the brunt of the criticism for the interview because she was “argumentative.”
However, in the latest edition of Radio Times, she has provided a far more nuanced reply to the TV appearance, insisting that he was correct in “many ways.”
‘I didn’t feel sorry for Parky, but then in a way I did because in lots of ways he was right,’ she said. ‘My physicality did get in the way of me being taken seriously as a classical actress.’
She also admitted that “times change,” saying, “Yes, yes, they really do.” And quickly. And we can only take the patriarchy down one brick at a time.’
She further mentioned how Sir Michael – who never apologised to her for the interview – welcomed Sir Elton John onto his show after he was ‘outed in a negative way’ by the media.
She revealed: ‘Parky invited Elton on to his show so that they could talk about it properly. He held out a hand and helped Elton John at a very important moment. So I don’t want to diss Parky.’
Dame Helen told Flaunt magazine in 2019 that Sir Michael ‘never saw’ why the interview had gotten such a poor rap over the years.
‘He did blow it that once, because, you know, he didn’t know any different,’ she said at the time. ‘I mentioned it to him again years later and he never saw what was wrong with it. He never could quite grasp it.’
The same year, Sir Michael appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and while he admitted the interview was ’embarrassing’ despite being ‘of its time’, he added: ‘Well, maybe [the comments were sexist]. But nobody got hurt, nobody died.’
