Helen Mirren says she used cocaine at parties until the early 1980s

Mirren said she had never been addicted. “I loved coke. I never did a lot, just a little bit at parties,” she said, adding that people taking drugs at parties may not think about their source. “You have to be conscious of the journey it’s taken to get to you.”

She also recalled taking LSD once. In her 2007 autobiography, In The Frame: My Life In Words And Pictures, Mirren wrote that the experience was “fabulous” and “magical”, but too powerful to repeat. She said she had also tried marijuana and other drugs, but described acting as her “ultimate drug” because of her commitment to her profession.

Mirren won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2006 for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Her screen breakthrough came in the 1980 film The Long Good Friday, after her career began with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1960s. She stars in MobLand alongside Pierce Brosnan and Tom Hardy. Hardy has spoken publicly about his past crack cocaine addiction and said he has been sober since 2003.

Mirren has also said she avoids doctors and prefers turning to AI for health advice. In comments about ageing, she has described being alive, working and enjoying everyday pleasures as “a beautiful thing,” and urged people not to fear getting older.