She has been isolating with her husband Taylor Hackford during lockdown.
And Dame Helen Mirren says she has appreciated being able to stay in one place for long period of time and learn new skills with her husband.
The actress, 75, said she has enjoyed the downtime at her lake house in Tahoe, which straddles the states of Nevada and California.
Downtime: Dame Helen Mirren says she has appreciated being able to stay in one place for long period of time
Speaking to Lorraine about her lockdown experience on Monday, she said: ‘My life up to that point, I was constantly packing and unpacking.
‘I never got to the end of a tube of toothpaste. My husband and I were in our house in America and I used up a whole tube of toothpaste for probably the first time in my life.’
She added: ‘It was fabulous just to be at home, talk about what we’re going to have for dinner tonight, there was a lot of cooking going on, exercise.
Couple time: The Oscar-winning star has been isolating with her husband Taylor Hackford during lockdown
Beautiful: The actress, 75, said she has enjoyed the downtime at her lake house in Tahoe, which straddles the states of Nevada and California
‘We learned Italian, we had Italian lessons at night the two of us. It was pretty cool for me.
‘For families with young children having to home school, so so difficult. On the other hand it’s been great for the kids to be with their parents.’
Lorraine then asked the Oscar-winning actress if she had been missing anything in particular during lockdown.
New skills: The Queen actress revealed she has been cooking a lot and has started learning Italian
Change of pace: The venerated actress said it has been nice not to live out of a suitcase for a period
She replied: ‘I love sitting in a bar with a cocktail in my hand and the buzz of a bar around me, I just love that.
‘And I hugely miss going to the theatre. I don’t love doing it but I love going to the theatre and I miss that terribly.’
It comes after the star revealed she was recently forced to confront a bear which had wandered into her garden after moving to Lake Tahoe.
The actress,said she managed to chase it away by shouting ‘bad bear’ at the creature in a bid to intimate it.
Watch out! Dame Helen Mirren has revealed she was recently forced to confront a bear which had wandered into her garden after moving to Lake Tahoe
Dame Helen had the hairy encounter during lockdown at her lake house in Tahoe which is home to the black bear.
The star said she discovered the bear trying to eat the bird food on her property before running up to it and shouting at him.
Authorities state that in your garden it’s best to be aggressive and assert your dominance to force a bear to leave.
The Queen star told the story on a recent episode of WTF with Marc Marron.
‘Bad bear!’ The Academy Award-winning actress, 74, said she managed to chase it away by shouting ‘bad bear’ at the creature in a bid to intimate it
She said: ‘We’re in Tahoe, actually. Brilliantly, and luckily, we just finished building a house here.
‘We had just made the move from LA, literally six months before the lockdown happened.
‘So – oh my God – we got locked down in the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful, places.
Hungry? Dame Helen previously shared a snap of her bid feeder in her garden on her Instagram page, which is likely where the bear was lurking
‘We’re not right on the lake but I can see it from here. It’s really pretty.. Incredible air, and just endless entertainment by wildlife.’
Dame Helen previously shared a snap of her bid feeder in her garden on her Instagram page, which is likely where the bear was lurking.
‘Chipmunks, and golden-mantles, and squirrels and about ten different kinds of birds. I saw a bear the other day!
‘A great big black bear came by and stole all my bird food. I went out and I said: ‘Bad bear! Bad, naughty bear! Very naughty bear!’.
‘He sort of looked at me and lumbered off. He was a big black bear.
Cheeky! The star said she discovered the bear trying to eat the bird food on her property before running up to it and shouting at him
‘Funnily enough, I was just reading a book – a little pamphlet – about wildlife up here.
‘They were saying what to do if you encounter a bear – [if] it’s looking aggressively at you and hunching its back and looking like it’s about to charge.
‘They said you make yourself look as big as possible, if you can grab a stick, make yourself look big.
‘And then it literally said: ‘And then shout: Bad bear! Bad bear!’.
‘There is of course that famous stage instruction in Shakespeare, which is: ‘Exit, followed by a bear’.’