Oscar winner’s secret to fight ‘dark dragons’

HELEN Mirren has learned to chase away any “dark dragons” by indulging herself in a little green therapy. do it, Helen, don’t worry.’” She opened up about her gardening therapy secret last week as she spoke to Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter in a fundraiser for the Kiln Theatre, West London.

Fresh from landing back in the UK from the Oscars, she also recounted how she has just completed a film called The Duke with fellow Oscar-winning Brit Jim Broadbent, 70.

She said: “The story is reminiscent of the Ealing comedies era of film-making in Britain.

“It is based on a true story about the hijacking of a famous painting of the Duke of Marlborough by a man who is very angry about old age pensioners having to pay for their TV licences.

“The film takes place in the early 1960s and I play his wife. It is a very charming.” Dame Helen also spoke about diversity in film and said she was shocked to learn hardly any black talent worked on her latest movie.

She added: “It is still very white. We were on set and there were no black faces. Not in front of the camera but behind the camera. That has got to change.”

And from her years in the business, Dame Helen has some no-nonsense advice for how to deal with award ceremonies.

She explained: “The way to get through them is not exactly take the p*** but not take it too seriously. It’s when you take it seriously that you get nervous. I am getting better at it. My best bit of advice is, ‘Don’t be such a tw*t’. It is very British.”