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Helen Mirren plays 2 queens
23/04/2006 07:38 - (SA)
California - Helen Mirren is a little conflicted about being a dame. "My street cred is gone," laments the actress, best known as Detective Jane Tennison in the gritty US PBS public television service crime series Prime Suspect.
The feminine equivalent of knighthood was bestowed on her by order of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, conjuring up images of "female impersonators" or "something from Guys and Dolls," laughs Mirren.
Professionally, however, Mirren's royal status has advanced far beyond the damehood level.
Playing two Queen Elizabeths
She plays the 16th-century queen in the two-part miniseries Elizabeth I, premiering on Saturday in the US. Later this year, she'll be seen as the current Elizabeth II in the feature film The Queen, which takes place in the days following Princess Diana's death.
"They both came to the throne at 25. They both shared this absolute, total, disciplined, dedicated sense of duty to their role as monarch," Mirren said, as she talked over a cup of tea at a local hotel.
But that's where the royal similarities probably end.
Through research, Mirren discovered the mercurial Elizabeth I was "an incredibly passionate woman, a woman who could be so angry that she literally fainted with anger, and at the same time could laugh so hard, especially at vulgar comedy, that she fell off her chair ... She out-Cleo'd Cleopatra."
Elizabeth II tends to be more refined, of course.
Numerous actresses, including Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett, have played Elizabeth I. Mirren says her favourite is Miranda Richardson's parody in Black Adder.
The virgin queen's romantic passions
Elizabeth I focuses on the virgin queen's two romantic passions - her heartfelt love for the Earl of Leicester (played by Jeremy Irons) and her tragic dalliance with the much younger Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy).
At an earlier news conference, Mirren, 60, had joked with Dancy about how "mortified" she felt in a love scene "when we were romping around on the cushions and you were pretending to be excited about it, with a terrible old woman underneath you."
Glancing over at the sleek and sophisticated Mirren - with her blonde bobbed hair and striking figure - Dancy had no problem sounding sincere when he said, "I didn't think of it that way!"
Scripted by Nigel Williams, the miniseries uses many of the intellectual monarch's own words. England's Palace of Whitehall was re-created in Lithuania inside a Soviet-era concrete gymnasium.
Queen Elizabeth II 'very charming'
Elizabeth II wasn't on duty when Mirren was dubbed a dame - Prince Charles did the honours - but Mirren once met the monarch briefly at a polo match.
"It was a great place to meet because she was in her element," the actress recalls. "She's very charming. Sparkling. People don't see that ... she's just not interested in smiling when she doesn't have reason to smile."
Elizabeth II reportedly enjoyed Elizabeth I when it aired on Britain's Channel 4 and she requested a video cassette of the miniseries.
"She apparently hadn't got a DVD," says Mirren. "That's so classic her."
- AP
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South Africa
