'Women weren't allowed in pubs': Helen Mirren recalls shock during visit to Australia in the 1960s

Veteran actress Helen Mirren opened up about the cultural shock that she received during her first visit to Australia in the 1960s in the latest issue of The Australian Woman's Weekly.

The 72-year-old British actress' first major film role was in the 1968 movie Age Of Consent, which was shot in Australia. Reflecting on her trip Down Under as a young actress, she told The Australian Woman's Weekly, "It was a very different Australia from the Australia of today."

She went on to reveal, "We were shooting on the Great Barrier Reef and women weren't allowed in pubs!"

In fact, Mirren's performance in the racy Age Of Consent is still remembered today as she appeared nude in several scenes.

The Oscar winner recently filmed Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built, a supernatural horror flick, in Melbourne, and admitted that her experience this time around was far more enjoyable and described it as one of the world's "great cities".

While the majority of the filming took place in Australia, some scenes were shot in the actual mansion in California, US.

In the film, Mirren plays Sarah Winchester, a widow who believes she is cursed by ghosts who died because of the firearms manufactured by her late husband. The movie also stars Australian actor Jason Clark, who plays a psychiatrist hired to help evaluate Sarah's mental state, and is set to be released in the US and the UK on 2 February, 2018.

Recently, the Woman In Gold actress recalled a spooky encounter on her wedding night. Mirren married director Taylor Hackford in 1997 after spending 11 years together, and her wedding night was planned in a romantic venue – a room in Castle Stuart in Scotland.

Mirren told British daytime TV show This Morning, "When we arrived, [the man] who runs the castle, said, 'This castle is haunted. When I was renovating the castle, I saw ghosts.'"

The owner then told the Hollywood star and Hackford that they would be sleeping in "the most haunted room" of all. "It was in the turret, very romantic, beautiful," said Mirren, who described her wedding as "incredible" and a "wonderful experience".

She continued, "It's New Year's Eve, it's my husband's birthday. [We were] up 'til two o'clock in the morning. We went to bed. An hour later, I woke up, I'm cold. It's really dark and I'm looking in the dark and you're looking in the shadows and then I see this light."

The English actress revealed that for the next 10 minutes, she was transfixed by the strange incidents in the room. "I am awake, my hairs are standing on end telling you this story," she said. "I am awake? Did I see that? Then, five or 10 minutes later, this light flashes round. My heart is pounding now.

"I make myself get out of bed. This cannot be real. This is not happening. I get out of bed and I start stumbling about the room trying to find out," she told the show about her spooky experience.

Mirren then shared the simple explanation for all the 'ghostly' events – it was the pattern on the window shutters. "Cut out is a little wooden heart and the lights I was seeing were the lights of the cars driving down the road, coming home. It wasn't a ghost! It's never a ghost!" she laughed.