Dame Helen Mirren has dismissed her reputation as “sexy”.

The 69-year-old is lauded for her looks as well as her prowess on stage and on screen.

But she dismissed the “sexy” tag which so frequently accompanies her name as “such an easy, lazy” label.

Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (Nicholas Hunt/AP)

“We’re all so much more complicated than that,” the actress, who appears as an Austrian Jew who was forced to bid farewell to her family and flee Vienna during World War II in new film Woman In Gold, said.

“There are so many different kinds of attractiveness in human beings, in human behaviour. I would like to see that recognised more often.”

Despite her success, the actress, who is married to film director Taylor Hackford, insisted: “I don’t really have confidence, honestly.”

Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford
Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford (Greg Allen/AP)

“I think that’s why I became an actress – you have to overcome that, you have to fight through it and come out the other side. Also, I think, as you get older, a lot of that anxiety just drops away. And it’s a lovely thing.”

The Woman In Gold is in cinemas now.