Helen Mirren hates slow news days, and for good reason.
Whenever there’s nothing more interesting going on in the world, it seems, photos of her – looking, for the record, fit and sexy – in a bright-red bikini may turn up. Quotes from her about such youthful indiscretions as cocaine use and shoplifting may explode into headlines in newspapers, in magazines and on Web sites.
“It’s a fake fuss, of course, completely fake,” Mirren said. “I think there are far too many media outlets out there. There’s just too much out there and, because there are so many, people are just gagging for any bit of old rubbish to stick in there.
“I find it extraordinary that something is (news),” she continued. “Obviously I did drugs in my 20s. Look at the era it was in when I was in my 20s – I was an actress in the ’70s. Surprise, surprise. ‘Oh my God, she did drugs!’ Shock! Horror!”
Of course Mirren remains so newsworthy not only because she’s unusually quotable but also because, at 63, she remains so relevant and formidable an actress. Dame Helen is a respected stage star both on the West End and on Broadway, and is a four-time Emmy Award winner, including two statuettes for her performance as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the British series “Prime Suspect” (1991-2006). She won an Academy Award as best actress for her portrayal of Britain’s Elizabeth II in “The Queen” (2006) and scored the biggest hit of her career with “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” (2007), which grossed more than $450 million internationally.
Mirren’s latest film is “State of Play,” a political thriller set for release on Friday and based on the British television miniseries “State of Play” (2003). Russell Crowe stars as Cal McCaffrey, a Washington-based investigative reporter assigned by his hard-charging editor, Cameron (Mirren), to cover a murder case. The deeper he digs, the more McCaffrey realizes that powerful political and corporate players, including a fast-rising congressman (Ben Affleck) with a recently deceased mistress, are embroiled in the intrigue.
“It’s a throwback, really, to those great movies of the ’70s, that sort of era,” Mirren said, speaking by telephone from the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband, director Taylor Hackford. “They don’t make them like that anymore. Movies nowadays are either these enormous, great digital-effects movies, the comic-book movies, or they’re low-budget, fabulous movies – but there’s very rarely something in between.
“This is that sort of in-between movie,” she said. “Having said that, this comes from a British television series that was actually made a few years ago. So go figure.”
For the film version Mirren takes over the role played on television by Bill Nighy.
“Bill did it much better than I,” Mirren said, laughing. “It was a great role within the television series, and Bill was absolutely brilliant. His character in the series, I have to say, was very different from the character that I play, but they fulfill the same function within the story.
“It was a great anchoring role throughout the piece, and that’s Cameron’s function in our film.”
Much like the Hollywood thrillers of the 1970s, “State of Play” is an all-star affair. Mirren’s co-stars include not only Affleck and Crowe, but also Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright Penn.
She had the advantage of working right at the beginning of the shoot, Mirren said, long before anybody had time to grow tired, bored or cranky.
“Everyone was fresh and up for it and ready for it when I was there,” she said. “I’d never worked with Russell before and I was very excited to do that, and to witness that kind of work in person because, as experienced as you are as an actor, you watch other people on the screen and try to work out, ‘Why are they so good? What makes them that good?’
“As an actor you try to dissect it,” she said, “but you never can. And it’s always more interesting to see it present in front of you. So it was great to watch that process.”
Mirren will be onscreen quite a bit for the next several months. In addition to “State of Play,” she has wrapped the films “Love Ranch,” “The Last Station” and “The Tempest,” and she’s currently portraying a Nazi hunter in “The Debt,” a remake of the Israeli film “Hahov” (2007).
“Love Ranch,” directed by her husband, casts Mirren and Joe Pesci as the married proprietors of Nevada’s first legal brothel, while “The Last Station” is a comedy/drama about the death of Russian author Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer), with Mirren as Tolstoy’s wife.
“The Tempest,” directed by Julie Taymor, puts a female spin on the Shakespeare romance, with the central role of Prospero transformed into Prospera (Mirren).
“Julie and I bumped into each other at a Directors Guild party,” Mirren recalled. “I was there with my husband. I’d just done ‘The Queen,’ and she very kindly said, ‘I’d love to work with you sometime. What do you want to do?’
“My brain always goes completely empty when someone asks me what I want to do,” the actress said, “except that I’d only recently seen Derek Jacobi doing ‘The Tempest.’ While I was watching him do it, and he was wonderful, I thought, ‘Wow, this could be a woman. This could easily be a woman. You’d have to change very little to make this work.’
“So I had that thought,” Mirren continued, “and when Julie said, ‘What would you like to do?,’ I said, ‘Well, the only thing I’d quite like to do is Prospero.’
“She said, ‘That’s amazing you said that, because I’ve always thought that I’d like to do “The Tempest” with a woman.’
“So we had this meeting of minds,” the actress said. “She said, ‘Let’s think about that and maybe do it.’ I said, ‘Let’s.’ Then she went away, and two years later I get a phone call and she says, ‘I think we’re going to do it.’
“I said, ‘Great. When? What theater?’
“She said, ‘No, as a movie.’
“That completely blew me away,” Mirren said, “because I’d never thought of doing it as a movie. And, blow me down, they found the financing and we’ve done it.
“Julie’s take on it is very traditional, absolutely traditional,” Mirren added. “It’s ‘The play is what it is.’ Ariel (Ben Whishaw) is a creature of the air and Caliban (Djimon Hounsou) is a creature of the earth. It’s just that Prospero is played by a woman, as a witch rather than a wizard.”
A couple of years ago, Mirren published an autobiography, “In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures” (2007). In it she candidly recounted the pivotal events that had shaped her as a person and an actress. To her surprise, the writing process itself turned out to be a reshaping experience.
“I always thought of myself as being a rather pessimistic, gloomy person,” Mirren explained, “and I was quite surprised writing it, actually, how optimistic I am and how ungloomy I am in general. I take quite a sunny view of things. It was a nice discovery, because when I’m on my own and to myself I think of myself as quite Russian, quite dark.”
