Dame Helen: why I’m still afraid of Hollywood
SHE MAY appear cool, calm and collected, accepting awards with the perfect speech and smiling graciously in defeat, but Dame Helen Mirren still feels “inadequate” in Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning actress has disclosed that she prepares a speech for every awards ceremony “just in case”, after taking advice from fellow thespian Emma Thompson.
Dame Helen is among a number of British celebrities who will reveal their experiences of Hollywood in a threepart Radio 2 series that also features Lord Fellowes, the creator of Downton
Abbey , Lord Puttnam, the film producer and actors Dame Diana Rigg and David Oyelowo.
Each will share how they survived the “cut-throat world of Hollywood” to become successful, telling listeners about their oddest auditions, intimidating executives and the largerthan-life characters they have met.
In an interview with Lord Grade, the television executive presenting
Brits In Hollywood , Dame Helen confided she still feels “slightly ill at ease” with the business side of Hollywood, and said she has not yet reached the stratospheric level of stardom enjoyed by some of her peers.
She shared a nominee’s view of Oscar night, describing the world’s top cinematic awards as “massive – it’s absolutely overwhelming”. She said: “The noise hits you, and the flashes which are just so full on.”
Dame Helen gained her first Oscar nomination in 1995 for Best Supporting Actress in The Madness of
King George , and won the Best Actress award in 2007 for The Queen . She is expected to be nominated for the 2016 Oscars for her role in Trumbo .
“People in Hollywood are very unfairly slagged off as ignoramuses, greedy, venal, everything,” Dame Helen said. “The reality is they’re really smart and very educated and very knowledgable.”