Mirren

I can’t stop watching the Stephan Frears film “The Queen“. I didn’t expect to like it, my sister offhandedly slipped the film into my backpack saying I might enjoy it.  Frears is undoubtedly the most underrated director working today. ‘High Fidelity‘ ’Dangerous Liaisons‘ ‘The Grifters‘ and ‘Dirty Pretty Things‘ should all find their way into your Netflix queue. 

But ‘The Queen’ is cemented by Dame Helen Mirren. I remember sneaking out as a child to go to the late show at UA6 and being mesmerized by her in the film ‘Excalibur’. What makes Helen Mirren exceptional is her fierce intelligence and curiosity equating a sexiness which seeps from her performances (except for ‘The Queen’ where she morphs completely into a character far from sexy). Rent a few episodes of her British television hit from the early nineties ‘Prime Suspect‘.

 She has always been forthright and outspoken. She admits to ‘adoring’ cocaine in the 80’s (though insists she was a casual party user, not one for locking herself in the hotel room for a week). Mirren unapologetically states that she ‘completely lacks any maternal instinct’ therefor has no children. Nudity has never been a problem for her. She is currently in production on a film (directed by her husband Taylor Hackford) about a couple who opened Nevada’s first brothel.

In recognition of her career as a staple of the theater, film and television, in 2003 the ‘Dame’ rank was bestowed upon her; England’s female version of knighthood. Mirren is also an atheist.  An example that Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, and Faye Dunaway should have followed, Helen Mirren proudly let’s it be known that she has never had plastic surgery, and never will (how many sixty-two year olds look this great in a bikini?).

Aside from these random facts about Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov (birth name) you’ll delight in discovering her talents through the variety of mediums in which she appears. There is a scene in ‘The Queen’ where she is alone, we don’t even see her facial expression (filmed from behind) and yet, with just a nod of her head, we are completely immersed in her experience bonding with a wild stag amidst a vast wilderness. Rarely does an actor so authentically convey their gift.