Dame Helen Mirren scared to take career risks

Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren has admitted that she has become increasingly 'frightened' with her career, as she has aged.

The 65-year old said she has become disinclined to tack on riskier roles because she needs the security of steady work.

"I try not to be but, you know, as you get older, you get more frightened," the Daily Mail quoted her as speaking to Total Film magazine.

"The realities of life start coming in on you and you realise that you do want security and so on and so forth. So you start working towards that and that's when you start losing your idealism, which is sad," the actress said.

Although the actress has received considerable critical acclaim over the years, her 2010 film Love Ranch bombed at the box office after it was released during the summer.

And while the actress admits to having made some chancy choices over her longstanding career but did so because she could always return to the boards of theatre.

"I've always made pretty... not dangerous, but out there choices that could potentially have destroyed my career. But one thing I've always gone back to is the theater," Mirren said.

"I always felt, especially when I was younger, that it didn't matter if it all went wrong because I could go back to the theater and still show people that's something I could still do," she added.