Shazam! Busy Helen takes a superhero break to fly in
HELEN MIRREN has been taking the redcarpeted steps at the nightly Cannes Film Festival premieres, in the Grand Theatre Lumiere, at a run. The steeper the stairs, the faster her pace.
‘I say “Action!” in my head and just keep going — and going — till I reach the top,’ Mirren joked, when I mentioned this.
The actress has been involved in several projects during the pandemic, including wartime drama White Bird: A Wonder Story, opposite Gillian Anderson. It was shot in the Czech Republic for director Marc Forster.
Mirren told me she’d taken a break from shooting Shazam! Fury Of The Gods in the States in order to see films at the festival with her director husband Taylor Hackford.
I liked the first Shazam! movie that Warner Bros released in 2019 — it was pure popcorn fun. Mirren chuckled and said: ‘It is fun. And I enjoy working with a young company.’
Another of her films, The Duke, in which she starred with Jim Broadbent, was shown at last year’s venice Film Festival. I visited the set in Leeds when director Roger Michell was shooting it back in 2019. It’s based on a true story about a portrait of the Duke of Wellington that was stolen from the National Portrait Gallery in the 1960s.
It’s an utterly delightful picture; beautifully observant of Great British down-toearth people.
Film distributor Pathe were smart to hang on to it and wait for a UK cinema release on September 3.
Mirren said that The Duke would have an American gala at the Telluride Film Festival, way up in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, also in early September.
The Oscar-winning actress, who turns 76 later this month, said she hasn’t visited England since before the pandemic.
In fact, I’m pretty certain on that occasion we had tea together in Mayfair. As you do.‘I do miss family, and the theatre,’ she said. She wants to return to the stage but is not sure about the timing. ‘I’d love to do a 30-minute play!’ she said, only half joking. Seeing the look on my face, she added: ‘OK then. I’d love to do a 60-minute play.’ The great dame would be luminous, no matter how long she spent on the boards.