All Hail The Queen Of Film
Our national treasure carefully chooses her roles – could that be why we love them so much?
Helen Mirren
As one of the most recognisable women in the world, Dame Helen Mirren has tackled over 60 film roles, ranging from Queen Elizabeth II to Ophelia. After countless awards and nominations, Helen has become a household name and a national treasure, and it seems there’s no role she can’t handle. Yet, despite having such a vast film collection, this wasn’t the route she initially expected her career to take.
“I started out work as an actress, not interested in film, quite honestly. I wanted to be a great stage actress.
“I grew up without a television. We didn’t go to the cinema. So I wasn’t really aware of the incredible art form that is film. It was the great 19th century divas of the theatre that I was fascinated by and which drew me.”
While still staying true to her theatre roots, Helen soon realised her love for the screen both big and small. She then decided to venture into film and TV, taking on a number of iconic roles, including the no-nonsense detective Jane Tennison in PrimeSuspect who she played for 15 years.
“It was only really later that I came to understand what an amazing form of storytelling and interaction with an audience film can be. And I was very ignorant about film acting at that point. I realised I had a lot to learn. I’m still learning, if truth be told.”
After causing a stir in the 1979 erotic film Caligula, Helen’s career has gone from strength to strength with her appearing on both stage and screen. Being so in demand, Helen is not short of potential roles and she has a canny way of deciding which one’s she goes for.
“When I read the script, I read the last page first to see if my character is on the last page. If it is, it’s a good sign. If it’s not on the last page, then I go backwards through the script to see the last time it appears in the story. And if it appears in a fantastic scene and it’s a really important exit to the story, then yes. But if the character just sort of disappears, there’s no point in reading it from the beginning because it’s not a good role.”
Luckily for us, one script she didn’t pass on was The Queen for which she won the Best Actress award at the 2007 Oscars. She later went on to reprise her role as Queen Elizabeth II on stage in both the West End and Broadway. This role seems to be one she was born to play with her likeness to Her
Majesty being the catalyst to the film’s inception.
“The film came about by a combination of elements. I was asked to do the film before the script had been written, actually. Andy Harris, who I’d worked with as a producer on Prime Suspect, looked at me one day and realised I looked rather like the Queen!”
Soon after, film writer Peter Morgan created a script for the film, but Helen wasn’t going to say yes straight away – even if this was the role of a lifetime!
“I said I would only do it if I read the script and I felt that it was human. And then Peter, who’s the most brilliant writer – I mean, really brilliant, brilliant writer – delivered what I thought was a pretty extraordinary script. Yes, it was a great experience.”
Helen is no stranger in coming across extraordinary scripts and steering her career in different directions. In 2017 she joined the Fast and Furious franchise playing criminal mastermind Magdalene Shaw, and is set to reprise her role for the new film F9: The Fast Saga, which is to be released next year.
With such a diverse repertoire, Helen explains what that draws her to a project.
“It’s the people. Obviously, you start with a script – that is all important. It starts on the page. And then who the people are, who the director is, obviously, who my fellow actors will be.
“And these people become a part of your family and they become an important part of your overall life. So those choices are very important.”
“I GREW UP WITHOUT A TV, SO I WASN’T AWARE OF THE ART FORM THAT IS FILM”