Welcome to The Helen Mirren Archives, your premiere web resource on the British actress. Best known for her performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, "Prime Suspect" and her Oscar-winning role in "The Queen", Helen Mirren is one of the world's most eminent actors today. This unofficial fansite provides you with all latest news, photos and videos on her past and present projects.  Enjoy your stay.
Celebrating
10 years
on the web
Dec
08
2016

The US promotion for “Collateral Beauty” is in full swing and Helen Mirren has been a guest on “The View”, “CBS News” and “CBS This Morning” (the latter two basically did the same interview) for the film’s theatrical release on December 16. Additionally, lots of promotional featurettes and stills have been published, as you can see in the next update.

First, clips from all recent talkshow appearances have been added to our brand-new video archive. Then, pictures from the “Collateral Beauty” press conference in New York, the taping of “Popcorn with Peter Travers” and a luncheon in honor of Helen’s AARP magazine cover have been added to the photo gallery.


Nov
30
2016

Helen Mirren graces the cover of AARP Magazine’s December 2016 / January 2017 cover. Their website not only features a stunning new pictorial but also an in-depth interview with lots of great insight on her career and living in America, traveling the US as a young theater actress, her “Collateral Beauty” co-stars and the constant pressure (or rather constant question) of eternal youth: “The best thing about being over 70 is being over 70. Certainly when I was 45, the idea of being 70 was like, “Arghhh!” But you only have two options in life: Die young or get old. There is nothing else. The idea of dying young when you’re 25 is kind of cool — a bit romantic, like James Dean. But then you realize that life is too much fun to do that. It’s fascinating and wonderful and emotional. So you just have to find a way of negotiating getting old psychologically and physically.” The full interview can be read over at the AARP website.

Nov
30
2016

As previously reported, Pirelli Calender is continuing to maintain last year’s tradition of photographing women to showcase a liberated and natural side of them. For this year’s edition, 14 actresses are modeling for German photographer and director Peter Lindbergh for a series of black and white photo of the actresses without any makeup or air brushing. From Kate Winset and Nicole Kidman to Helen Mirren and Penelope Cruz, all the actresses are excited about leaving behind the tonnes of makeup that goes into creating the myth of a perfect woman. To celebrate the calendar’s unveiling, a press conference and premiere was held yesterday in Paris. With many thanks to Claudia, hundreds of pictures have been added to the photo gallery. The Lindbergh photography of Helen Mirren can be found here.


Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2016 – Pirelli Calendar 2017 by Peter Lindberg Premiere
Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2016 – Pirelli Calendar 2017 by Peter Lindberg Photocall

Nov
12
2016

Marie Claire has posted a wonderful extensive article on Helen Mirren, featuring a couple of stage photographs and a school picture on their website: When Helen Mirren was invited to appear on Michael Parkinson’s eponymous chat show in 1975, he must have assumed she would be one of his less contentious guests. This was her first primetime appearance and he was the doyen of celebrity interviews – how could it possibly go wrong? Yet it did – for him – as seen when the footage resurfaced on social media and went viral last August. When Parkinson blithely suggested her ‘equipment’ (nodding towards her breasts) might detract from her acting, Mirren didn’t simper and giggle as he clearly expected her to. Instead, quietly ‘enraged’ as she would later reveal, the actress – then 30 – shut down his sexist questioning with masterful aplomb: ‘I’d like you to explain what you mean by “my equipment”, you mean my fingers? Come on, spit it out,’ she urged him, before dismissing his questions as ‘boring’. Now a Dame, with her latest film Collateral Beauty hitting cinemas this December, she is one of only 13 actresses ever to have achieved what’s known as the Triple Crown of Acting – winning a Tony, Emmy and Oscar. Born Illiana Lydia Petrovna Mironova on 26 July, 1945, in west London, she was one of three children. Her Russian father Vasily, a civil servant, anglicised their names when Helen was nine. Her mother, Kathleen, was the daughter of an east London butcher who supplied meat to Queen Victoria. The family relocated to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, when Mirren was two, because her parents felt the seaside was a nicer place to raise children. Mirren is fiercely proud of her roots. ‘I am still very much an Essex girl,’ she said. ‘My poshed-over voice was all learnt.’ The complete article can be read here.

Oct
07
2016

Here comes a real treat for the archives. Helen Mirren’s career will always be related to The Queen, or several queens. After all, these performances have won her the triple crown of acting – an Emmy for “Elizabeth I.”, the Oscar for “The Queen” and, most recently, the Tony Award for “The Audience” – a fictional recount of The Queen’s meetings with the Prime Ministers during her reign. Stage performances are almost impossible to find, so it’s a wonderful exception to the rule that the National Theater has broadcast and streamed various performance in the past years, including “The Audience”. Over 1.000 screencaptures from the National Theater taping have been added to the photo gallery. Enjoy.


Sep
12
2016

“The Leisure Seeker,” starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple on a last cross-country adventure, has struck a chord among film distributors. Since Cannes, Paris-based Bac Films has scored a flurry of pre-sales on the film based solely on the script, package and Italian director Paolo Virzi’s reputation as one of Italy’s top directors. Deals were signed for Australia and Canada (eOne), Germany (Concorde), Spain (Karma), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Strada) and Israel (Lev). Bac, which co-represents the U.S. with CAA, is expecting to close more deals at Toronto, where the first footage of the film will be shown to buyers, said Bac Films’ topper Gilles Sousa. The deal could include multiple territories. The Leisure Seeker combines the best of Europe and American filmmaking and storytelling. It’s a love story that has a true universal appeal carried out by a pair of actors who are on top of their games,” said Sousa. The movie is currently in its last stretch of shooting in the States on the East Coast. Inspired by Michael Zadoorian’s eponymous novel and billed as a sort of “Easy Rider” meets “The Notebook,” “Seeker” turns on a couple embarking on a twilight-years road trip from Boston to Florida in a vintage Winnebago. The screenplay was penned by Italy’s Francesca Archibugi (“Like Crazy”) and Francesco Piccolo (“Human Capital”) in collaboration with Amidon and Virzì.

Sep
07
2016

The first theatrical trailer for David Frankel’s “Collateral Beauty” has been released today, boasting a great ensemble for what looks like a heartwarming Christmas story. Will Smith stars in Collateral Beauty, a star-studded drama that focuses on the Oscar-nominated actor as a once-successful business man faced with the tragic loss of his young daughter. Smith’s character is left to pick up the pieces, and as his close friend (played by Kate Winslet) describes it, “He used to love life. Now he hates it.” He mourns her passing by writing letters to abstract ideas such as love, time and death, aspects of life he narrates in the trailer, “are the three things that connect every single human being on earth,” continuing, “We long for love, we wish we had more time and we fear death.” Smith then begins receiving surprise visits from the ideas themselves, this time in the form of Helen Mirren as death, Keira Knightley as love and Jacob Latimore as time. “I saw you in her eyes when she called me daddy and you betrayed me,” Will’s character says to Knightley’s during their emotional encounter. “Collateral Beauty”, also starring Edward Norton, Michael Peña and Naomie Harris hits theaters just in time for the holidays on December 16.

May
17
2016

This morning, Helen Mirren stopped by on her way to Cannes Film Festival to talk to Lorraine about why she’s going to be playing the Queen once again in a special production of The Audience. The full interview segment as well as screencaptures have been added to the video and photo archives.

Apr
11
2016

Over the past two weeks, Helen has been very busy promoting “Eye in the Sky” both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Lots of new videos from promotional interviews and talkshow appearances – including Charlie Rose, Graham Norton, Andrew Marr and today’s This Morning – have been added to the video archive. For a complete list, have a look at the previews below. Screencaptures from all appearances have been added to the photo gallery as well.



Video Archive – Talkshows – This Morning (April 11, 2016)
Video Archive – Talkshows – The Andrew Marr Show (April 10, 2016)
Video Archive – Talkshows – The Graham Norton Show (April 08, 2016)
Video Archive – Talkshows – The Charlie Rose Show (March 31, 2016)
Video Archive – News Segments – Fox 4 News (April 01, 2016)
Video Archive – Career – Eye in the Sky – Featurette 01
Video Archive – Career – Eye in the Sky – Interview 04
Video Archive – Career – Eye in the Sky – Interview 03
Video Archive – Talkshows – The Today Show (March 15, 2016)

Mar
12
2016

Helen Mirren’s latest film, the wardrone thriller “Eye in the Sky” has been released in select theaters in the United States, so if you get a chance to watch it, be sure to grab your ticket. “Eye in the Sky” stars Helen Mirren as a UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. Through remote surveillance and on-the-ground intel, she discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” The thriller co-stars Aaron Paul and features the last screen role of the late Alan Rickman. Four new clips have been added as well, including two new scenes from the film, a compilation of television spots and an interview with Helen and director Gavin Hood.