Oscar Royalty Reflects on Prime Suspect
By now, just about every American moviegoer knows Helen Mirren for her recent Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears’ “The Queen” — a performance so adored by viewers at the Venice Film Festival that they showered it with a five-minute standing ovation. (Not bad for a premiere.)
But some 16 years ago, the London native born Illiana Lydia Petrovna Mironova made another thrilling mark — this one on British TV, as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the crime drama “Prime Suspect.” Tennison was no ordinary detective; she faced down tension in the field (investigating serial killings) and on the work front (bearing sexist hostility from her male colleagues).
Sept. 11 sees the release of “Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act” (Acorn Media, $29.99), the three-hour last installment of the series, originally aired in November. Approaching retirement, Tennison is investigating the murder of a missing girl. Alas, it’s no open-and-shut case, as Tennison grapples with an alcohol problem and the death of her father.
On the Small Screen spoke with Mirren about her years on “Prime Suspect,” her watershed turn as England’s ruler and how she keeps those iconic roles from typecasting her.
Q So … do you think Queen Elizabeth has seen you in “The Queen” by now?
A I don’t know directly. I can’t imagine that she didn’t. I very, very much imagine that she did.
Q When Her Majesty came to the U.S. recently, some people were joking, “Boy, that queen does a great Helen Mirren impersonation.”
A [Laughs.] In Britain, there were lots of cartoons in that direction after the film. The cartoonists had a field day.
Q Was there any point in playing Queen Elizabeth where you felt some sort of larger force taking over — the Queen Aura, if you will?
A I was extremely unself-conscious in that role, which really took me by surprise. I’m nothing like the queen at all. But in researching her, I found a great deal of respect for her and I found it an extremely comfortable place to be playing her.
Q Even in that one scene when you got out of that stuck all-terrain vehicle and started tinkering around with the machinery?
A She is a car mechanic and she doesn’t drive new cars around, so there is that unexpected element in her.
Q You studied hard to emulate Queen Elizabeth. How did your work on “Prime Suspect” compare?
A I always did very little preparation. I always thought at the start, “Let’s just do it.” Even the first one, I couldn’t prepare for it because I was shooting a film right up until the day before. I had to drive across Italy, get on a plane and get to the set at 6 a.m. the next morning. I had to allow ideas to happen. It’s not such a bad thing — as long as you have the tools to do it.
Q Did playing Jane Tennison on “Prime Suspect” teach you any lasting lessons over the years?
A I don’t know about that. What does happen is that when you get older, certain insecurities fall away — and others raise their heads. And as you do go on, you learn. Life is a constant process of learning and you never come to the end of it, but you do gain knowledge.
Q Such as?
A I don’t think so much anymore. Maybe it’s just laziness, but I don’t worry about things; I allow them to happen more and I trust my own instinct and my abilities. I don’t worry about failing as much.
Q I’d say your Best Actress Oscar is proof the strategy is working.
A I happen to have been given a great role in a wonderfully written film.
Q Looking back on your “Prime Suspect” run, what makes it special to you?
A I’ve grown up in it, though I was fully grown-up when I came to it. It became in Britain and to some extent in America a very iconic role on TV. It became a turning point for women’s roles on television. I’ve been able to spread my work over such a broad canvas, but it’s always been a constant to go back to.
Q And yet you left “Prime Suspect” for seven years. Why — and what made you come back?
A I left it for seven years because I felt I needed to extricate myself from my success of it. But there was a very good executive producer at Grenada [Television] named Andy Harris — who went on to be an executive producer for “The Queen” — and I liked his style. I trusted his tastes and together we became sort of a partnership. After seven years, I felt I had taken my name away from Jane Tennison. Because you know, TV sticks. … It’s hard to extricate yourself from great success.
Q Ever worry about “The Queen” sticking?
A It’s so idiosyncratic: The queen sticks to the queen, if you like. It was a good thing to stick to her, and it might’ve been equally difficult to wriggle free if it had been a cruel or unfair portrait.
Q “Prime Suspect” seems to have been a creatively rewarding endeavor for you. Tell us about that.
A As the success of the series developed, along with that developed my contribution to it — and having a say, a voice in the directors I wanted to work with, the writers I wanted to write. My overall contribution on the set became one that was listened to, and that’s a very nice position to be in. I felt I was in partnership with the directors and the writers. My way of approaching that was to give them as much freedom as possible, to get really great work from really great artists. The best way to get the best work is to give people freedom.
Q Does all your success of late give you a taste to explore other aspects of film and TV?
A I did direct a short film for Showtime a few years ago ["Happy Birthday," 2001] and I loved the process. I felt it was absolutely essential to understand the process the director goes though — but I wouldn’t want to do it again. It was to learn. And it was an invaluable experience. A lot of actors want to act for that reason; they want to know what it’s like there.
Q Several weeks ago in an interview, Joan Collins told me that her Alexis character on “Dynasty” showed her something about how to be assertive. Did Jane Tennison leave any mark on you like that?
A Hopefully no mark, really. The canvas I work on as an actor is pretty broad; I’ve done stage in New York, television in America, television in England — as wide as you can possibly imagine in many ways. But I’m very proud of the work on “Prime Suspect” and feel that it was a commentary of the time that it was in. Hopefully it will stand as a social commentary. … But maybe the mark it left on me is a real understanding of how film is made. … But before I did “Prime Suspect,” I had not been on a set day after day, week after week, playing the character. I learned about hitting the mark, understanding technique, how the dolly moves, depth of field — purely technical things.