Dame Helen Mirren chased away a bear while quarantining in Nevada

Dame Helen Mirren chased away a bear whilst quarantining in Nevada.

The 75-year-old actress has been spending the Covid-19 pandemic in a remote home in the US state, and recently had a "bit of a meeting" with a wild bear who came too close to her property.

Speaking at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday (April 4) where she was presenting an award, she explained: "I did have a bit of a meeting with a bear. I was so excited to see a bear, but then, of course, you can't allow bears to get too familiar with human beings because they are wild animals. So I chased him away."

Helen revealed she was able to get rid of the fierce animal by telling him "he was a naughty bear" and "shooing" him away.

She added: "I shooed the bear away. I told him he was a naughty bear. He was a young bear so I just said, 'No, naughty bear, go on, go on, off you go!'

"You're supposed to make yourself as big as possible and say, 'Bad bear! Bad bear!' Because it was not a big bear - it was a smaller bear - so I just said, 'You naughty bear, go on. Go away!'"

And although the Good Liar star wanted the bear off her property, Helen is actually a keen animal lover and recently said she doesn't go to zoos because she finds it "uncomfortable" to see animals in cages.

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She added she was previously "in a state of ignorance about how radically certain zoos have changed, and how many species have become extinct in my lifetime".

The Queen actress explained: "Do your homework and find out what kind of a zoo it is you are visiting. Is it accredited? See if the zoo is doing the kind of work and the animals are living in a way you feel is righteous. Never go to the kind of zoo where you're there to have your photo taken with a wild animal. That is unconscionable."