Dame Helen Mirren says she has made an "endless litany" of mistakes in her decades-long career

But she is quoted in the new issue My Weekly magazine saying about how she got to the top by trial and a lot of error: "I turned down projects I should have said yes tom doe projects I should have said no to, had relationships with people that I shouldn't have had relationships with, got drunk at times that I shouldn't have got drunk at.

"There's been an endless litany of mistakes and missteps but somehow, I've stumbled into being in the right place at the right time."

Helen - who grew up working class in London - became the youngest actress to be invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company aged 21, but it took decades more work to hit the big time in Hollywood.

She previously told Closer: "I wanted fame when I was 22. I had a certain kind of success in Britain.

"But the kind of international success didn't come until after 40."

Helen added about loving the melodrama of Shakespeare before she got into acting: "I was blown away by all this over-the-top drama (when I saw 'Hamlet' for the first time.)

"We grew up with TV and never went to the cinema... all I wanted to do was get into that world where all those fabulous things were possible."

After her breakthrough role in 1980's 'The Long Good Friday', Helen's other notable movie appearances included 'Cal' in 1984, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for best actress, and 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' in 1989 - before going on to feature in a string of action blockbusters such as 2010's 'Red', 'Red 2' and the 'Fast and Furious' film franchise.