Dame Helen Mirren often visits a Korean baths where swimming costumes are banned.
Although the 67-year-old star has stripped off for movie roles in the past, it's not something she's that keen on doing any more. She isn't afraid of showing off her body though, rather the star believes people put too much importance on nude film scenes.
"It would have to be for a very, very good reason. On the other hand, although I almost don't want to talk about this because I can just see the headline, 'Dame Helen Mirren is a nudist', is nudity that bad? It's a great leveller you know in its place, on the beach, where everybody else is naked," she told the latest edition of British Vogue magazine.
"The sex thing is completely wiped out and there's this wonderful innocence and sweetness about doing it. I mean, there are these Korean baths where I go in LA, where you aren't even allowed to wear a swimming costume. If you do, one of the ladies will come up and say, 'Take that thing off!'"
Helen is famed for her toned body and was famously pictured looking svelte in a red bikini several years ago. Her secret is that she has never obsessed about the ageing process, something she thinks is vitally important for other women to understand.
For Helen, there is nothing worse than seeing women who are unable to accept they are no longer in their youth.
"It is weird when everything starts heading south, but it is not a sad thing. One has to find a different way of being. Sometimes I see women of 60 or 70 who haven't managed to step out of that way of being and, though not consciously, are using their physicality and girlishness with people the way they used to when they were younger. Sometimes I find myself doing it and I think, f**k, this is so... grotesque is too harsh... so unnecessary. There are certain things you have to come to terms with just because that is the way it is," she explained.
The actress has been with her partner Taylor Hackford since 1986, with the pair marrying in 1997. She believes one the reasons she has always been so accepting about her changing shape is because of Taylor.
He is the least looks-obsessed person she knows, although that doesn't mean he is without fault.
"I mean without thinking about it, with no political stance, he looks at men and women with utter equality," she explained. "Of course, that doesn't mean he can put the f**king dishes in the f**king dishwasher. He actually said to me the other say, 'Oh, that's your job.' But he said it in an utterly non-sexist way."
