She has more Baftas and Golden Globes than she can fit on her mantelpiece, yet Helen Mirren still suffers from imposter syndrome. Photo / Getty Images
She has more Baftas and Golden Globes than she can fit on her mantelpiece, yet Helen Mirren still suffers from imposter syndrome. Photo / Getty Images
She's a dame, has a wheelbarrow load of Oscars and more Baftas and Golden Globes than she can fit on her mantelpiece, yet Helen Mirren still suffers from imposter syndrome.
In an interview, the actress admitted to that "endless, niggling feeling: 'Oh God, I'm going to be found out anyminute now. I got away with it that time, but next time I'll be found out.' Because you can never be absolutely sure that you're that good at what you do."
Is this imposter syndrome, or a humble brag? To the rest of us it seems amazing that even after all those awards and accolades, the 76-year-old icon is still not sure she can do it.
But ramping up your doubt and underplaying the personal agency in your success is a common tactic in successful women, particularly of Mirren's generation. Let's not forget that they grew up in a world where female success was far rarer, and where dealing with men's egos – not to mention the jealousy of female contemporaries – was a very real issue.
"I think of myself as still being the way I was in my mind, in my body, through my 20s, 30s and 40s: Struggling, ambitious, frustrated and self-critical," she said.
The sadness to me is that 30 years of success hasn't corrected her self-flagellating mindset, that all those honours and awards haven't changed her internal monologue. It makes me wonder how much success could ever be enough to fill that hole, that chasm of female doubt.
Mirren shows us that imposter syndrome needn't hold you back - and may even drive you on to go that extra mile and perform at your best. Photo / Getty Images
However Dr Anne Whitehouse, author of Pull Back Your Power; Unlocking Profound Confidence and Success for Women, is not at all surprised by Mirren's comments. The further women deviate from cultural norms, the more they succeed, she says, the more we feel out on a limb and like imposters.
"Imposter syndrome makes us feel not good enough. The root of these feelings isn't our abilities. It's the mismatch between who we are and the old double standards and male-default benchmarks that still tell women we should stay in the background.
"For 2000 years our cultural narrative for women has been that to be safe we should be hidden, small, stay in the kitchen. Every high-achieving woman has broken these obsolete limits thousands of times.
"Indeed, women who challenge that story by succeeding, by being highly educated, outspoken or for getting loads of attention and outshining men – like Helen Mirren – feel less and less safe the more successful they become. That is why imposter syndrome can become worse the more successful you become."
I see the self-doubt that Mirren has revealed constantly in the retreats and events I run with women through my platform for women in midlife, Noon. All women, and in my experience particularly the successful women, feel doubt and lack under the surface. Many hide this but are then relieved to discover that everyone else in the room is feeling it too. There is a huge power in that.
Indeed, the good thing about admitting our insecurities is that we realise we are not suffering from a personal "lack" or weakness, but that there is something systemic going on which makes all women feel like this.
So Mirren's insecurity only adds to her appeal. After all, if an impossibly sexy and charming 76-year-old female icon is crucified by self-doubt then the rest of us can feel better about our own anxieties.
Certainly, her achievements show to us that imposter syndrome needn't hold you back – and may even drive you on to go that extra mile and perform at your best, as if the insecurity which underlies perfectionism is also the creator of it.
Read like that, her feelings of imposter syndrome are her superpower, an advantage.
Yet while I applaud Mirren for being so open about her own self-doubt, it is only when women really look at the myths they are being spun and the anxiety they feel that we can begin to change things. We also owe it to all the women coming up behind us to own our success.
