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
Nov
11
2023

On Thursday, Helen Mirren stopped by “The Talk” on CBS to promote the Audible premiere of “Moriarty: The Silent Order”. She talked about voicing Lady Milverton and joked about the possibility of joining the EGOT ranks in case of a Grammy win for her performance. A clip of her appearance can be found in the video archive with screencaptures being added to the photo gallery.

“I play sort of an arch villainous [Lady Milverton] really. I’ve always wanted to play an arch villainous. I was rather cross that I was never asked in any of the Bond movies to be like the big villain…so it was a wonderful opportunity.” Host Jerry O’Connell asks, “You have Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony – is this our Grammy? Are we getting that EGOT?” “Wouldn’t that be lovely. There are so many brilliant actresses who can also sing, and I want to kill them because I can’t sing at all.” Mirren adds, “I’m never going to win my Grammy from singing…They often win a Grammy for writing a book, then reading it, a sort of tell all book.” She jokes, “My Sex Life by Helen Mirren.” (Helen Mirren, The Talk, November 09, 2023)

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Video Archive – Talkshows – The Talk (2023)
Photo Gallery – Television & Online Appearances – The Talk (November 09, 2023)

Aug
28
2023

In an interview aired by Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday, Mirren spoke about her leading role in “Golda” depicting Israel’s first and only female prime minister, Golda Meir, during the period of the fateful 1973 Yom Kippur War. The interview was recorded in July when Mirren was in Israel for the premiere of the movie at the Jerusalem Film Festival. “I believe in Israel, in the existence of Israel, and I believe Israel has to go forward into the future, for the rest of eternity,” Mirren said. “I believe in Israel because of the Holocaust.” She revealed there were those who had tried to talk her out of making the film due to Israel’s controversial position on the world stage, but, she said, “I’ve met such extraordinary people in Israel.” “I know there is a base, a foundation of deep, intelligence, thoughtfulness, commitment, poetry even in Israel that is very, very special, I think,” said Mirren. Mirren admitted that before making the film, “I didn’t know a lot about Golda” but said she clearly recalled “the feeling of triumph and satisfaction and of awe actually that a woman had been elected to lead a country. It was a very exciting moment for women in general. Understanding her physical suffering… as well as the mental suffering of dealing with this enormous burden of the war, that was a revelation for me.” The complete article accompanying the interview can be read here, while the full interview can be found in the video archive.

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Video Archive – News Segments – Channel 12 Israel (August 28, 2023)
Photo Gallery – TV & Online Appearances – Channel 12 Israel (August 28, 2023)

Aug
12
2023

This August, we’re in for a treat. The French/German television channel Arte will be celebrating Helen Mirren with a weeklong retrospective, as well as a brand new documentary, directed by Nicolas Maupied, which will share insights on Helen’s varied career. Arte’s retrospective starts on Monday, August 14 with “The Long Good Friday” (also available on-demand). The following Monday, August 28, “Excalibur” and “Eye in the Sky” will be shown. And on Wednesday, August 30, “Hitchcock”s broadcast will be followed by the new documentary “A Sassy Royal Actress” (alternatively “Une Femme Puissante” in French or “Eine königliche Schauspielerin” in German). The documentary, which will be available on Arte’s streaming platform starting August 23, runs for a full hour and will feature lots of scenes from her films and from archive interviews. To my knowledge, no interaction or new interview has been conducted for this – but I’m looking forward to see if they dug up some old treasures.

Not only a theater icon, but also a television and a movie star, the English Helen Mirren and her brilliant career have been impressing the world since the 1960s. She is the only winner of the “Triple Crown of Acting”. She’s an uncategorizable, multi-talented actress, but also a powerful and very feminist woman. She is considered by many to be the greatest living actress. Often associated with the roles of powerful figures in films such as “The Queen”, she is a strong feminist activist. Indeed, for almost 60 years, through the characters she chose to play and her attitude behind the scenes, she’s an advocate for women’s emancipation, relentlessly fighting against sexism.

Feb
14
2023

Helen Mirren will lead the Queen’s commendation at the 76th annual film awards ceremony at London’s Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday. The Queen had a close association with the Academy that spanned 50 years and saw her donate and support initiatives, as well as attend many events over the years. In 1972, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh donated the profits from the documentary film Royal Family to the Society of Film and Television Arts (SFTA), which later became the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta), for a new headquarters. The renaming of the organisation occurred during the official opening of the headquarters in 1976, which was conducted by the Queen, and remains the London home of Bafta five decades on. During her lifetime, the Queen was a patron of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Royal Variety Charity and the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. William and Kate will be attending the ceremony for the first time in three years before meeting the winners and Rising Star Award nominees. Bafta’s chief executive Jane Millichip said: “It is an absolute pleasure to welcome so many nominees and film industry guests to the EE Bafta Film Awards on Sunday. “This year’s Awards are shaping up to be one of our most well attended on record, which is a ringing endorsement of the importance of British audiences to the global film industry, and Bafta’s role in bringing these incredible films and filmmakers to public attention. The EE Bafta Film Awards will be broadcast on 19 February at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

Sep
06
2022

IFC today announced “Documentary Now… and Forever!”, a week-long cinematic celebration pairing classic documentaries and the landmark series. The in-person, retrospective screening series will play at The IFC Center located in New York, NY, from Wednesday, September 14 through Tuesday, September 20. For fans who cannot make it to the in-person screenings, a curated selection of documentaries will also be available on AMC+, AMC Networks’ premium streaming destination, beginning the same day. Hosted again by Helen Mirren, the two-part season premiere episode, “Soldier of Illusion,” written by John Mulaney and starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicholas Braun, and August Diehl, was inspired by the Werner Herzog-focused documentary Burden of Dreams. In the early 1980s, a visionary German filmmaker (Skarsgård) tries to will his magnum opus into existence while working in the remote, punishing conditions of the Russian Ular mountains. Screencaptures from the trailer have been added to the photo gallery.

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Photo Gallery – Miscellaneous Projects – Documentary Now! – Screencaptures – S53E01 – Soldier of Illusion

Jun
15
2022

According to this Sky press release, The South Bank Show, one of the UK’s most loved and longest standing arts and culture programmes, returns on Wednesday 20th July on Sky Arts, Freeview channel 11, and NOW with three brand new episodes. Edited and presented by Melvyn Bragg, the new three-part series of The South Bank Show showcases talent from the worlds of acting, comedy, and dance with films about Helen Mirren, Frank Skinner and Carlos Acosta. Helen Mirren is one of the best-known and most respected actresses in the world, with a career that spans over 30 years. In the first episode of the series, she joins Melvyn to discuss her diverse and prolific career across theatre, film, and television, exploring a range of work including her early days at the Royal Shakespeare Company to her extraordinary Oscar winning performance in The Queen. Longer-form 90-minute episodes of The South Bank Show will also air in late-August, giving audiences the opportunity to learn more about the incredible careers of Helen, Frank and Carlos through extended interviews with host Melvyn Bragg.

Apr
21
2022

According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.K. network ITV has lined up a host of big names to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee next month. Among those leading the festivities for the monarch’s 70 years on the throne will be Tom Cruise, Helen Mirren and Damian Lewis, who will take part in a grand theatrical event, including 1,300 performers and 500 horses taking viewers through various moments in history, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I through to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mirren is set to play Queen Elizabeth I (a role she has performed before in a 2005 TV series), while a cast of “Queen’s Players” will be introduced by a character called The Herald, played by actor and comic Omid Djalili. Each act will reflect on key moments in history, including Elizabeth I’s Tilbury Speech and James I and the Gunpowder Plot. The Commonwealth will also be celebrated, as well as the four nations within the United Kingdom. All of this will be interspersed with a number of military and equestrian displays from around the world, including Azerbaijan, India, Oman, France, Norway, Switzerland and Trinidad & Tobago. Music will be provided by a 75-piece orchestra comprising Tri-Service personnel and augmented with members of The National Symphony Orchestra, with special performances from Keala Settle, Gregory Porter and Katherine Jenkins. The musical director will be the multi-award winning composer, Debbie Wiseman, whilst the principal director for music will be Lieutenant Colonel Jason Burcham RM. The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee will be broadcast live from the private grounds of Windsor Castle on Sunday, May 15.

Apr
08
2022

On Tuesday, Helen Mirren was a guest on “The Today Show” to promote the limited theatrical release of “The Duke” in New York and Los Angeles on April 22.

Dame Helen Mirren joins Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager to talk about her new movie “The Duke,” where she plays the wife of a working class man accused of stealing Britain’s most famous painting. The Oscar winner reflects on her legendary career, sharing how she deals with acting anxieties. “I always have had profound insecurities, I think it’s one of the reasons I became an actor,” she says.

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Video Archive – Talkshows – The Today Show (2022)
Photo Gallery – TV & Online Appearances – 2022 The Today Show (April 05, 2022)

Feb
18
2022

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kate Winslet has been tapped to present Helen Mirren with the 2021 SAG Life Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards later this month. As previously announced, Mirren was chosen to receive the guild’s top honor at the Feb. 27 ceremony in recognition of her body of work, including her Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning roles. The award is presented annually to “an actor who fosters the finest ideals of the acting profession.” The event will reunite Winslet and Mirren, who starred together in the 2016 film Collateral Beauty. Winslet, who received an Emmy last year for her starring role in Mare of Easttown and is nominated for a SAG Award for the same role, next stars in James Cameron’s Avatar sequel and in Ellen Kuras’ Lee, on which she also serves as a producer. The 28th annual SAG Awards will air live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Feb. 27 on TNT and TBS. It also will be available to stream the following day on HBO Max.

Feb
13
2022

Today IFC announced the return of Documentary Now! for its 53rd season, quite the feat for such an artful and obscure series that’s actually in its 4th season. As Collider reports, the series, hosted by Dame Helen Mirren, pays homage to the art of documentaries through farcical short films. The new season will consist of six new episodes, which are currently in production. The new episodes include Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport, an homage to fashion documentaries such as 3 Salons at the Seaside and The September Issue. The short will be a fly-on-the-wall look at a salon owner and her staff as they prepare their annual stylebook, How They Threw Rocks, a take on the sports documentary When We Were Kings, which will follow Craig Maes, a Welsh sportsman known as the “Field Rock” who competes in a 1974 bout titled “The Melon vs. The Felon,” and My Monkey Grifter, which draws inspiration from My Octopus Teacher, and follows a filmmaker who develops and intensely personal relationship with a monkey with devious motives. Documentary Now! has been nominated for six Emmys over the course of its run. The series debuted with rave reviews from critics both critics and audiences. The series soon became a fan favorite thanks to the series’ loving treatment of such beloved documentaries as Grey Gardens. Season 53 is currently in production and further casting announcements will be made soon. No premiere date has yet been set.