Helen Mirren in an interview
The Dorchester at Hyde Park is the luxury hotel in London where movie stars traditionally descend. Often for purely professional reasons: many hold in a suite yard and receive one journalist after another for interviews. "Pressejunket" is an appointment in jargon. Today it is Helen Mirren who gives interviews to her new movie "The Debt", which is now also running in Germany under the title "An Open Bill" (film release September 22). Helen Mirren plays in it a former agent of the Israeli secret service, which successfully covered up a failed mission in the sixties, but faces the lie of that time more than 30 years later.
Lady Helen Mirren has spoken to journalists from all over the world since early in the morning, often in groups, sometimes ten, sometimes fifteen minutes. I'm allowed to meet her alone and have at least 25 minutes, but I'm also the last person to do that. Rather unlikely that she still has great desire now.
Straight in her costume, she sits on the sofa and devotes full attention to the questioner. She thinks about each question for a moment and then answers it carefully in clear, well-worded sentences. "I'm not the queen?" She says at some point during the conversation, addressing her most famous role. But she definitely has a majestic look: perfect composure. WOMAN: Ms. Mirren, in your new movie, you play a Mossad agent. I read on Wikipedia that you even learned Hebrew for that, although you do not have to talk about it in the movie. Much effort for someone who claims to be lazy.
Helen Mirren: I am really lazy! And I'm definitely too lazy to learn Hebrew. If this is on Wikipedia, I have to correct that. But of course I always prepare myself as far as a role demands. For this film I learned a bit of Russian, because I speak Russian in the film. And I have dealt intensively with the tragedy of the Holocaust. But no, I did not learn Hebrew. Not really.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Your film character, Rachel Singer, once lied as a young woman and successfully repressed that for 30 years, until she is confronted with her past again. Would you also be a good repressor?
Helen Mirren: I do not know what I would do in such a case. But I think that even Rachel Singer never quite managed to escape her past. The lie was always there, no matter how much she tried to ignore her.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Too humane behavior ...
Helen Mirren: What is certain is that we have a hard time forgiving others. But when it comes to ourselves, we are always very generous with our forgiveness. People easily find excuses for what they have done. If you're traveling by bus or subway, it's very likely that someone is sitting next to someone with a dark secret. Maybe he murdered someone.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Pardon me?
Helen Mirren: That some people have dark secrets, is not an invention of filmmakers, but something that exists in the world. And despite their dark secrets, these people have found a way to live without guilt.
Good that I met my husband so late. We used to work too much both in the past.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: The movie is about portraying someone you are not for half his life. Nothing else will make you professionally as an actress. Is it actually a curse for you that everyone still thinks you are also a private character like Queen Elizabeth II?
Helen Mirren: Many do, but it is inevitable. Even me as an actress sometimes confuses other actors with her role. After seeing the? Queen? but it was really extraordinary. You were so polite to me? and I mean polite in the literal sense? that I had to say all the time: Hello, it's alright, I'm not the queen at all. Even today, that happens. But the longer the movie lasts, the less it gets. You also do other things.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You've made a lot of films in the past two years. One of them with her husband Taylor Hackford as director ...
Helen Mirren: Yes, The Love Ranch ?.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: ... unfortunately only released on DVD in Germany. What was it like to work with your husband?
Helen Mirren: It was not easy. It was difficult.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Why?
Helen Mirren: Because we know each other too well. It was very difficult to establish a professional relationship with one another within a private relationship.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Would you advise others not to work with their partner?
Helen Mirren: Other people have different forms of relationships, so I would not generalize that. It was difficult for us. Still, I'm glad to have made a movie with Taylor. We got to know each other during a film, but never worked together afterwards. It was something we just had to do. And we are both very proud of the movie. Even if he was not a commercial success. The critics had expected something more romantic.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: When you married Taylor Hackford, you were 52 years old. What is the benefit of a late marriage?
Helen Mirren: There is no particular advantage in getting married late. But for me personally, it had advantages to marry the man with whom I had been living for twelve years. I had family, these were my sister and my nephews, Taylor had his sons. Through our wedding, we have become a big family. My nephews are now the cousins of his sons, that's what they call each other. We grew together very much as a family.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Is it a pity you did not meet your husband earlier?
Helen Mirren: I used to say to Taylor, "Oh, we've wasted so many years." He said, "If we had met in our twenties, we would not be together now." And he is right. I worked a lot and very ambitiously back then, he worked very hard and ambitious, each one of us was busy doing his own thing. The time when we met was probably the time when we should meet.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You were then a respected actress in England, but rather unknown in the US. Her husband was a successful Hollywood director, she his girlfriend. Now you are the internationally known movie star. Did that somehow affect your relationship?
Helen Mirren: No, not at all. Why should it? The most important reason we are happy with each other is that we have supported each other all these years. Especially in terms of work, we have always encouraged and encouraged each other. He is immensely proud of me and I am extremely proud of him.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: I recently found on Youtube the first TV interview you gave, that was from 1975.
Helen Mirren: Yes, I remember that very clearly. That was on the talk show with Michael Parkinson.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: At that time you played theater in the Royal Shakespeare Company. The interviewer called you the "sex queen", staring at you at the breasts and asking you if your physical attributes are not hindering your intent on going through as a serious actress.
Helen Mirren: Yes, that was in the seventies. That was normal. It was not normal that I was actually insulted. The journalist still does not understand what I found offensive. I think I coped well with the situation back then, I was charming in the interview and still pretty friendly. But I was angry. Really sour. But then the rest of the world did not find the question sexist. Today it would be different.
I wish my parents were still alive and knew that I and my sister were fine.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: The journalist accused you that you were attracting attention because you also showed your body. That you are more successful today than ever with 66 and one of the most respected actresses in the world - is that a kind of satisfaction?
Helen Mirren: Yes, that's it! It shows again: you only have to wait long enough, then comes at some point the retaliation.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You grew up in financially modest circumstances, your father was a musician and drove a taxi, your mother came from a family of 14 children and was a housewife in the marriage. Now you have an Oscar, you are Lady Commander of the British Empire, live in Hollywood and in London. Tell yourself sometimes: Wow, can not I do more?
Helen Mirren: I wish my parents were still alive and knew that I and my sister - my sister is a teacher - are well and that we live in secure conditions. I am financially completely independent, be it from a husband or someone else. That's what I've worked for and I'm very proud of that. But you always want life to go on. And it only goes forward, if you think you have not done enough, you have to do more.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: What else would you like to do?
Helen Mirren: When I look at the lives of other people who have done something for the environment, for other people or for society, I admire that. And I think I have not done enough in that direction by now.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: As an actress, you make people happy.
Helen Mirren: This is my job and I try to fill it in as well as I can. But I admire the people who also have their jobs and also work for charitable purposes or in political organizations.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You write in your autobiography that you consider the years between 18 and 28 to be the hardest time in life. How about 40, 50 and 60?
Helen Mirren: The twenties are difficult. Not just for me, I think, but for most people. It's always said teenage time is particularly problematic, but that only applies to the relationship between parents and their teenage children. But the twenties are a tough time in every sense: if you're already successful, you're worried that it will last. If you do not succeed, you worry if you will ever have it. Plus, you have to pay your bills, grow up, and suddenly deal with all the other horrible adult things you've never thought of before. The thirties are the best, I think. But the forties and fifties are good too.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: And how do you find your sixties?
Helen Mirren: They are alright. After all, I'm sitting here! The beauty of aging is that you become more and more relaxed. You do not run around with a frown all the time because you're worried about anything, be it politics, work, love, or life.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: What advice would you give 20-year-old Helen Mirren today?
Helen Mirren: Be punctual. Be conscientious. Have fun if you want, and do not be ashamed of it. And if any people annoy you, do not be so polite. Tell them: fuck off.
Interview with Helen Mirren: to the person
Helen Mirren was born in London in 1945 as Ilynea Lydia Mironoff. After school, she began her studies as a teacher for her parents, but incidentally, she was on stage as a member of the National Youth Theater. At age 22, she became a permanent member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.
In parallel, she was also seen in the cinema, including in the 70s scandal movie "Caligula". A fortune-teller, who prophesied that she would not have her greatest success until mid-forties, was right: it was the television series "Hot Suspicion" and her role in "Calendar Girls" that made her known. She gained world fame in 2006 with her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen". The actress has been married to Hollywood director Taylor Hackford since 1997; she lives in Los Angeles and London.
