Helen Mirren is 79 years old. She was 48 years old when 27-year-old Kurt Cobain died in 1994. Helen still feels Cobain’s passing acutely. She’s always thinking about Kurt Cobain, especially when she marvels at modern technology. It’s a unique perspective, to always wonder “what would Kurt Cobain say about this.” I sometimes wonder what various founding fathers would think about various people or things – like, what would Ben Franklin think about the internet? What would George Washington make of Barack Obama? For Helen Mirren, it’s always about Kurt Cobain:

Helen Mirren has a relatively unique perspective on how she thinks Kurt Cobain would navigate the world if he hadn’t died in the 1990s. During an interview with Evening Standard’s Brave New World, the famed actress shared that she feels “sad” that Cobain is no longer alive because he never got the chance to experience GPS and its “magical” functionality.

“I always say, it’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did, because he never saw GPS,” said Mirren. “GPS is the most wonderful thing, to watch my little blue spot walking down the street. I just find it completely magical and unbelievable.”

Of course, the comment came amid a broader point she was making about aging. “If you’re lucky, you get to be older,” she continued. “And then there you are. Oh my God, I’m 79! I never thought I’d be 79. And then you say, OK, well this is it. This is what 79 is. And it’s kind of OK. It’s not brilliant, but it was not that brilliant to be 25 either.”

Mirren has referenced Cobain numerous times in the past when discussing the nature of aging. In 2014, she told Oprah Winfrey, “Look at Kurt Cobain — he hardly even saw a computer! The digital stuff that’s going on is so exciting. I’m just so curious about what happens next.”

A year later, she told Cosmopolitan, “I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I’m totally blown away by that.” And, in 2016, she said to the Daily Mail, “If I’d died at 27, the age that Kurt Cobain [of rock band Nirvana] died in 1994, I’d never have even known there was an internet! Incredible things are happening all the time and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

[From Variety]

Cobain’s death was really a defining moment for her. She might have been a Nirvana fan, but given her age at the time, she probably just thought – what a tragedy that this young man passed away, think of all the things he will never experience, all the things he’ll never see. And that’s stuck with her for decades. I don’t think she’s trying to offend anyone at all, it’s just stayed with her all of these years, that Kurt Cobain died before his time. Personally, I don’t think Cobain would marvel at GPS or the internet. But he would probably marvel at other things.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Ola Bergman / Avalon.