Helen Mirren says it's 'so sad' Kurt Cobain 'never got to see GPS'

Dame Helen Mirren has said it is "so sad" Kurt Cobain died at such a young age and never got to see GPS.

The Oscar-winning actor lamented that the Nirvana frontman - who killed himself in 1994 at the age of 27 - missed out on the technology.

"I always say, it's so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did, because he never got to see GPS," she told The Evening Standard.

"It's the most wonderful thing, my little blue spot walking down the street. I just find it completely magical and unbelievable."

The satellite-based Global Positioning System became operational in 1993, but was not widely available for use by citizens until more than a decade later.

It's not the first time Mirren has referenced Cobain when talking about technology and ageing.

In 2014 she told Oprah Winfrey: "You either die young or get old. There's no other way. I didn't want to die young. 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, in an interview with Cosmopolitan, she said: "I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I'm totally blown away by that.

"The internet is a huge movement in the history of humanity - it's maybe even more important than the creation of the printing press. If the price I have to pay to see the future is getting older then so be it!"

'I'm not interested in being young'

The 79-year-old Prime Suspect star also reflected more generally on the process of ageing, telling The Evening Standard she remained "fairly healthy".

"I'm sure I'll go all pear-shaped soon," she told the newspaper.

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"But I'm not interested in being young. I'm interested in being exactly who I am.

"I never thought I'd be 79. I'm not full of youth, but I am life full. I much prefer that phrase… And I feel so grateful that I lived in a world without technology for quite some time.

"I knew a world without technology in a deep and full sense… Human connection was a very different thing back then."