It’s Good To Be Queen
Helen Mirren jumps off her Oscar throne into a new action movie and opens up to us about marriage and who taught her about love. (Hint: It’s not the same guy.)
Helen Mirren stands regal in a red velvet gown as a photographer snaps away. She looks every inch the imperious goddess who’s graced many a costume epic. While a makeup person goes in for touch-ups, she introduces herself to me. “When this is done, we shall take our thrones,” she says, pointing toward a balcony space that has been set up for the interview. Then, she’s whisked away for a costume change. When she reappears, her demeanor is different. Dressed in a beret, sweater and slacks, she seems looser, relaxed, almost playful. Suddenly … splat!
In a studio in Culver City, Calif., the 62-year-old Oscar winner is whacked by a cream pie. Gobs of lemon meringue coat her face, while a cadre of hair, makeup and publicity people stand by, nervous. Grounds for death by hanging, perhaps? Not for this master thespian.
Mirren’s having the time of her life, laughing with every glob of gooey confection that ingloriously lands on her head. It’s all part of the photo session — conducted with her full consent. (Look for the pictures in our Dec. 28-30 year-end issue.)
If anyone qualifies as Hollywood royalty, it’s Helen Mirren. In 2003, she was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Last year, she won an Oscar and two Golden Globes for her portrayals of two Queen Elizabeths (one of each for the movie “The Queen,” plus a Globe for TV’s “Elizabeth I”).
Clearly, it’s good to be the queen. After more than 40 years in the business, Mirren’s career is white-hot. She has four movies in the works, including one with Brad Pitt. “It is remarkable,” she says. “But it wasn’t like I was struggling and then suddenly I arrived. I just think the fact that it all came at one time, people sit up and go, ‘Where [in the world] did she come from?’
“Mirren’s latest project takes her about as far from a royal corset as she can get. In the adventure film “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” she plays Nicolas Cage’s mother, a linguistics expert who reluctantly joins a quest to find a book of centuries-old government secrets. “I kick ass, man,” she says. It’s her first big action movie and, among other things, she had to dangle 100 feet in the air. “I’ve wanted to do it all my life.” Mirren’s roll-up-your-sleeves attitude wasn’t lost on the cast and crew. “Oh yeah, she got very physical, and she was a real sport about it,” Cage says. “It’s funny,” he adds. “We’d be on the set, and [movie studio publicists] would introduce her as ‘Dame Helen Mirren, Academy Award winner.’ And I would say, ‘Well, I’m Ghost Rider!’ And she would say, ‘Exactly!’
“It’s that total lack of pretense that makes her so disarming. For instance, she’s a big fan of reality TV: “America’s Next Top Model,” I love it! I love Tyra Banks. It’s wonderful to watch the appalling nature of females. We are so awful!” For Mirren, no topic of conversation is off-limits. Between sips of veddy British milky tea and handfuls of oatmeal raisin cookies, she let’s it rip.
On her ex-boyfriend, actor Liam Neeson: “He taught me a lot of things — Northern Ireland politics, how to make a very good colcannon, an Irish potato and cabbage stew. And he taught me about love.”
On cosmetic surgery: “I absolutely believe in it! Why feel miserable if you can change something? But breast implants are weird to me. They seem a bit like hanging a pair of oranges around your neck.” [We didn't dare ask Dame Mirren if she's had any work done.]
On gay marriage: “I think gays absolutely should have the right. For the same reason Taylor [director Hackford] and I got married — to be able to say, by law, ‘This person is important to me.’ ” Mirren and Hackford have one of the most successful and scandal-free relationships in Hollywood. They finally tied the knot in 1997, after being together since 1984. She was 52 when they wed and hadn’t seen herself as the marrying kind. “I used to say, ‘I have nothing against marriage, but to me it’s like turnips. They’re just not for me.’ And now I love being married. I love saying, ‘I’m going to see my husband tonight.’ ”
Mirren can’t quite pinpoint why she was ready to seal the deal after a 13-year courtship. But Hackford is more forthcoming. “I wasn’t proud that I had two failed marriages,” he says. “But when we got together, we were both in our 40s. We had had lives and partners before that. We realized this was going to last, so we figured, what the hell!” He’s set to direct her early next year in “Love Ranch,” inspired by true events, in which she’ll play the madam of the first legalized brothel in Nevada. “It’s a great story,” Mirren says. “Legalized prostitution is not such a bad idea,” she adds. “It gets girls off the street, away from pimps and drugs.”
Insisting that she’s “a working actress, not a movie star,” Mirren chalks up her Oscar win to luck. The winning night, she says, was all a blur — except for a starstruck moment of her own. “I remember Leonardo DiCaprio kissing my hand,” she says. “It was so sweet. That was the highlight of the whole evening.” Mirren and Leo? Why not? These days, Mirren is often called “sexy and 60.” The men in her life agree.
“Her sensuality comes from her honesty,” says her husband. “She’s not hiding behind makeup or a baby- doll hairdo. She’s the real thing.” Adds “Treasure” star Cage: “I’ve had a crush on her since she was Morgana in [the 1981 movie] “Excalibur.” She looked sensational in chain mail. Oh yeah, that was good stuff!”
But Mirren claims not to give her sex appeal a second thought. “Sometimes I feel great and sometimes I feel really crappy,” she says.
“I’m just like everybody else — I’m always on a diet!” Then Mirren laughs and mischievously breaks off a chunk of a buttery cookie. “Can’t you tell?”