Dame Helen Mirren stuns Pierce Brosnan, Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show audience with unexpected 'tomatoes are bisexual' revelation

Sky News AU

2 days ago

Dame Helen Mirren has delivered a surprise botany lesson that sent The Tonight Show audience into fits of laughter.
The 80-year-old British acting legend, appearing alongside her Thursday Murder Club co-star Pierce Brosnan, shared her newfound tomato knowledge while host Jimmy Fallon made salsa from his homegrown produce.
"Incidentally, I just want to give you a tip about growing tomatoes," she told Fallon during the live show on Tuesday evening.
"You know the little flower? Well, a good way to get a tomato out of a flower is you have to tremble the flower like this," she added, bending a finger and wiggling it in demonstration.
"Did you know that?"
Fallon instantly burst into laughter, urging her to "stop doing that" and insisting, "I'm not doing that- at all- to my tomatoes!"
"You've got to. A tomato is a bisexual thing, you see," Mirren replied, doubling down with, "Well, it is!" prompting more laughter from Fallon, Brosnan and the audience.
"I looked it up very recently because I had a problem with my tomatoes.
"It's bisexual, so you have to go around to each tomato, each flower, and go like this," she added, repeating the hand motion.
After asking Fallon if she could smell the tomato, Mirren took a sniff and responded to Brosnan's query about its bouquet with a blunt: "Not really."
When Fallon prepared to slice the tomato for salsa, the Academy Award-winning actress hid her face, exclaiming, "Ahhhh! How can you be so cruel? I'm amazed."
She later declared the salsa "really fabulous", saying "Demi died a noble death" in apparent reference to the tomato.
Shortly after the live interview aired, fans flooded social media with praise for the bit.
"Love British humour, Helen is hilarious!" one wrote, while another said: "Everything about this interview was perfection."
Others commented on the pair's enduring charm, while a handful felt the segment "missed the mark".
Regardless of fans' opinions about the interview, Mirren's research appears accurate.
According to Seed Collection Australia, tomato flowers are indeed bisexual, as they contain both male and female reproductive parts.
Mirren, a celebrated actress with a career spanning over six decades, was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.
Her accolades include an Academy Award, five Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, four BAFTA Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
One can only assume that her fruit and vegetable garden is equally as impressive.