‘IT’S TIME TO SHAKE THINGS UP’
THE ACTRESS DRASTICALLY TRANSFORMS FOR HER NEW FILM
Dame Helen Mirren has played her fair share of real people over the course of her six-decade career. But her latest historical figure, Israel’s first female head of government Golda Meir, sees the actress delivering her most startling – and challenging – transformation yet!
Golda, which co-stars Liev Schreiber, recounts the politician’s leadership during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Helen, 78, admits she didn’t “really know a lot” about Golda when she signed on to the film, so enjoyed delving into her research.
“All I knew is when she came to power [in 1969] it was an incredibly important moment for me as a woman to realise that women could be prime ministers,” Helen tells New Idea in an exclusive interview.
Here, she sheds more light on inhabiting such an “incredible person”.
What attracted you to this role?
I went into this with the deepest admiration for Golda and came away with a kind of love for her. She gave absolute and total dedication to her country and she achieved it without being a power mad dictator.
Could you relate to Golda? She was very maternal and she absolutely loved kitchen equipment! She had to have the latest mixer or whatever and I’m all for buying the latest kitchen equipment!
What research did you do? I read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos. What I always do when playing characters like this is to look at their life up to the age of 20. I look at how they were as children and how they were raised. Those experiences are the ones that form you I believe.
How did you transform physically for the role!
It involved a lot of makeup and prosthetics! There was an incredible makeup team on-set who were just wonderful. The costume was so important too. It’s a part of the creation of the story and, for me, a great tool to enter into the character. It always rather surprised me at the end of the day when I took it all off and I was me again. I got so used to looking in the mirror and being Golda.
Why do you still love working so much?
It’s a combination of things. I love working on things for
the pure fun of it, like Fast & Furious and Shazam! With Golda, it’s a much more serious undertaking and it’s like you’re putting your head above the parapet somewhat. I always love to shake things up a bit and try to find projects that are very different. That’s what I love – the constant mixing it up.
You’ve won pretty much every award an actor can, haven’t you? I haven’t won every award! I haven’t won a Grammy after all, which is really very annoying! Unfortunately, I absolutely can’t sing, so I won’t ever win a Grammy. But to be mentioned for any award is flattering. I’m really very grateful for everything.