Conversation | 04/15/2008 11:18 am
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ShareHelen Mirren: 'Awards Are Wonderful ... But They Are Not the Main Course'
Dearest Liz,
After much rushing, finishing my husband’s film, promoting my book in New York, and then enduring six-hour costume fittings here in Germany, and shooting the first week of a fabulously emotional role as Tolstoy’s wife, I finally have a moment with my computer to answer your questions, so here goes …
LIZ: Did you have more fun at the Academy Awards this year or last year when you won for "The Queen"?
HELEN: Last year at the Academy Awards was probably the best night of my life and I floated on a cloud; nothing could be better than that! Having said that, the "Dame in Red" had a grand time this year, the highlight being the honor of presenting an Academy Award to my countryman [Daniel Day-Lewis], and one of the film world’s greatest actors.
LIZ: How does it feel now to have the Oscar, the Golden Globe awards, several Emmys, the BAFTA awards, the SAG awards and everything else all behind you for your great efforts in "Prime Suspect," "The Queen" and "Elizabeth I"? Where do you keep these things? Can you now rest on your laurels and your neat little behind?
HELEN: Darling Liz, who gets everything else right, my behind is neither neat nor little. However, you know awards are wonderful things to receive, a delicious dessert at the end of a dinner, but they are not the main course. They have to find the right place both in the home and in your professional life. In the home they should never be center, front of the mantelpiece, and in your professional life likewise.
Mine are actually spread around a bit, between L.A. and London, where Taylor and I also have a home. My Oscar is in London, I think at the moment standing halfway up the stairs. He tends to move around a bit, and I suspect has struck up a "Bronnie" relationship with the SAG "Actor" I also have in London.
(I hope you have watched "Make Me a Supermodel" to understand a Bronnie relationship!)
LIZ: You are finishing up playing a madam of a whorehouse in Nevada in "Love Ranch." What’s the difference in being a royal queen and a royal prostitute?
HELEN: Not much! Both are the CEOs of their realm. Our queen of Britain has far more constrictions on how she behaves, but in the end, people are people, and our job as actors is to reveal their humanity.
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48 Reader Comments (so far…)
Oh! What a wonderful interview. I think that Mrs. Helen Mirren is so great I can not wait to be able to read he book and see her next movie. Liz Thank-you for doing the conversation with her. Wow!
I want to comment to Helen Mirren how much I enjoyed that exquisite bit of business in The Queen when she removed her glasses and cleaned them on the edge of her sweater. It was such an ordinary womanly gesture that layers of royal armor fell from her to reveal the reality of the human being she was portraying. How wonderful it was to watch. Thank you.
Liz, thank you so much for this. Helen, you constantly confirm my belief that actors, serious actors, reach for the spiritual stars in living out true emphathy and compassion for others by actually striving to become another (put on the hat, follow the impulse, find the character) for a little while. The great photographer Edward Weston once said the best book he ever read about photography was Constantin Stanislavski’s “An Actor Prepares.”) You have in practicing your craft made my personal life immensely richer; you have provided (along with Dame Judith Dench and others) a bar to stretch to in creating my own work; and given me faith and hope as a woman artist in the thin patches. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Godspeed.
Lucky bugger to have found that lovely man Taylor and to have successfully made the trip across the pond, now you have the best of both worlds. As an ex-Brit myself, tho still really a Brit, I would like to know if Helen still feels she’s going “Home” when she returns to London. She has two completely different worlds there and here, stage v. film, but has managed to reign in both - what a pleasure to anticipate such upcoming juicy roles - take that you age- naysayers!
Well that just an excellent excellent interview! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Bless you Liz Smith for asking and THANK YOU Dame Helen for taking the time to answer! I just got “In The Frame” and can’t wait to read it. What a fabulous treasure-trove of pictures! And every time I saw Simon Mirren’s name in the credits of a favorite TV show, I wondered if he was related. Thanks for clearing that mystery up for me. I just finished a little “Helen Mirren Film Festival” this past weekend catching up with some of the lesser-known works. Each and every performance was stellar. What a thrill to come to the site and find this Q&A today. Many thanks!!
Gayle Turner 4/15/08 11:31 am
Loved the interview. Helen Mirren is #1 in the world of acting,
as well as, being a lovely woman. She is beautiful, honest, and
very very funny. I look forward to any roll she plays—she can
do it all. Especially, “Love Ranch” will be a real challenge.
Like I said, “Helen can do it all”.
WOULD LOVE TO VIEW HER TV DETECTIVE SERIES AGAIN..WOULDN’T YOU? LOVED “THE QUEEN”
I’ve rented it (Prime Suspect) at Blockbuster. Are you the English actor Charles Dance?
CHARLES YOU CAN GET THE COMPLETE SERIES AT “NETFLIX”
MS. G.
Enjoyed the interview immensely. It seems that Ms. Mirren would be a blast to sit down and talk with.
Wonderful interview with Helen Mirren. While reading I could picture the two of you talking. I’ve always enjoyed her performances, even before Prime Suspects. If someone ever did a movie on Hilary Clinton, Ms Mirren would be perfect for the role.
Hillary’s already been done perfectly by Meryl Streep in the remark of the “Manchurian Candidate”. Helen does smart, savvy and at the same time vulnerable but scheming and nasty isn’t her shtick. To appreciate her breathtaking youthful beauty she starred in the 1979 version of “Caligula”
But scheming and nasty is apparently your shtick, isn’t it Mark.
No disrespect to Helen Mirren or to you, Ms. Taylor, I think Emma Thompson could do an excellent job playing Hilary Clinton. And again, this is fantasy that a Clinton movie is being written as we speak.