In her first-ever online class, Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren shares the techniques that she has learned through the course of her international career that has spanned stage, screen, and television. Her powerful and versatile performances have earned her numerous awards, including the Academy Award in 2007 for her performance in The Queen, a Tony Award in 2015 for her performance in The Audience, and four Emmy Awards. In her class, Helen Mirren will discuss the dualism that is core to her acting method: the necessity for mastering technique (craft), and then letting go of that technique so that your imagination can take over (art). Lessons include how to break down a script, conduct research for real and fictional characters, approach the more “poetic” aspects of character, make thoughtful decisions on costume, and handle props in a way that is true to your character. While helping you develop your own acting talent, Helen will take you behind the scenes of her greatest roles, including Elizabeth II in The Queen, Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and Prospero in The Tempest. In Helen’s online class, learn about: Researching Characters Breaking Down Scripts Creating Characters Through Hair and Makeup Creating Characters Through Costume Characterizing Sets Camera Technique Performing Shakespeare Collaborating With Writers & Directors. Learn more about Helen Mirren Teaches Acting on their official website.

Helen has been busy these last two days. Yesterday, she and Taylor attended the 9th Annual Governors Award to celebrate co-star Donald Sutherland’s Honorary Academy Award win. Today, she and Sutherland were on hand for the AFI Fest premiere of “The Leisure Seeker. Pictures from both events have been added to the photo gallery.

Photo Gallery – Public Appearances – AFI Fest – The Leisure Seeker Premiere
Photo Gallery – Public Appearances – 9th Annual Governors Awards

Entertainment Weekly has a bit on Helen Mirren’s interview on Netflix’ The Hollywood Masters. No stranger to portraying real-life figures, Helen Mirren may have her eyes set on her next “Shakespearean character.” “I’d be so funny as Trump. I love it. I’ve almost got the hair. Yes, of course, I mean, what a fascinating character. What an extraordinary character. I mean, that’s a character isn’t it, the real thing? I would say real life is so much more interesting than anything you can make up. But you know, a fantastic sort of slightly Shakespearean character. He may have a Shakespearean fall, I don’t know, but he is an extraordinary character.” When asked if she thought it would be difficult to penetrate Donald Trump’s psychology, the Academy Award winner says her portrayal of the president would start by looking into his background. “I don’t think that would be too difficult to penetrate quite honestly,” she opined. “You look at the upbringing. You look at the schooling, the father, the mother. I don’t know much about Mr.Trump’s background, but if I was to play him, I would definitely start there… That’s what you have to start with, the child, and the child is very much in Trump.” Mirren’s next film, The Leisure Seeker, opens in theaters on Jan. 19.

Yesterday, Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford have attended the South Coast Plaza 50th Anniversary Gala celebration on Monday night. The festivities took place at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, where Henry’s widow Elizabeth Segerstrom hosted a concert by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, presented by The Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Conducted by maestro Valery Gergiev, a close friend of Henry Segerstrom’s, the program featured Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” performed by Denis Matsuev. The event drew art world luminaries including Ralph Fiennes, Plácido Domingo, Frank Gehry and Bill Viola, who were seated in the president’s circle with Elizabeth Segerstrom and Princess Michael of Kent. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

Some fantastic new magazines scans have been added to the photo gallery, mostly from this year. A great find is last year’s Australian Woman’s Weekly with a new outtake as well as the Sunday Express’ S Magazine. Also, many thanks to Claudia for submitting the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. For a complete list of new magazines, have a look at the previews below. Enjoy reading.

Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Myself Magazine (Germany, November 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Woman & Home (United Kingdom, October 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Entertainment Weekly (USA, September 29, 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – F Magazine (Italy, September 06, 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Entertainment Weekly (USA, September 01, 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Gioia Magazine (Italy, September 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Women’s Weekly (New Zealand, August 28, 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – S Magazine Sunday Exprress (United Kingdom, July 23, 2017)
Photo Gallery – Articles & Scans – Women’s Weekly (Australia, March 2016)

Welcome to the new version of The Helen Mirren Archives! The previous layout has become synonymous for the site due to it’s time being online and I really loved how the site has grown with this look. But with all the recent announcements of new projects and the upcoming releases of “The Leisure Seeker” and “Winchester”, I wanted to give the site a fresh new face. It has become quite a colorful new face as well 🙂 I hope you enjoy it. The photo gallery and video archive have received matching layouts as well and the career section has received a new feature, on which I’ve worked for a while now: the press section. On each film page, you will find a link to the press section in the sub-menu. Let’s take The Queen as an example: The new sub-site gives you a great overlook on the international press tours for the film, starting with the Venice Film Festival. There are radio interviews to listen to, talkshow appearances to watch and articles from all countries in the world. The wealth of material depends on how a film was promoted around the world – not every press tour was as extensive as Woman in Gold, for example, but there will be great discoveries, especially on her work in the 1980s and 1990s. So, head over to the career page, select a film and then simply click the press coverage to launch the new sites. I hope you enjoy browsing them as much as I do.

CBS Films has released the first teaser trailer for Helen Mirren’s spooky “Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built.” The supernatural thriller is based on the life of eccentric heiress Sarah Winchester, who was convinced that she and her family were haunted by the souls killed by the family’s infamous rifle. Her real-life obsession led to the round-the-clock construction of an enormous 160-room mansion in San Jose, California, designed to keep these evil spirits at bay. The Winchester Mystery House still stands today in northern California and has been named one of the “Most Haunted Places in the World” by Time Magazine. The Winchester Mystery House is one of California’s original and most popular historic attractions. Since opening to the public in 1923, the house has welcomed nearly 12 million people from around the world. Following a medium’s advice, Sarah built a massive house in Northern California to appease the spirits. For the next 38 years, she never stopped building believing that if she continued, she would live forever, and if she stopped, she would die, which she eventually did in 1922 at age 82. The trailer can be also found in the video archive while screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

Update and words courtesy JoBlo: The last word we brought you guys on the upcoming Spierig Brothers (“Jigsaw”) haunted house flick “Winchester” starring Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke was when we told you the film was moving up its release date and changing its title. Yes, “Winchester” will now be known as “Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built” and will be released on February 2nd, 2018. Below you will find an all-new still from the film featuring Mirren and Clarke and below that you can check out the film’s teaser poster which boats the killer tagline “Terror is Building”. Classic. Total classic. “Winchester” is written and directed by Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig and stars Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, and Angus Sampson.

Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. To the outsider it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman’s madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters…

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland’s upcoming drama from Sony Pictures Classics, The Leisure Seeker, was the big winner at Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival GEMS 2017 event, which wrapped in Miami Sunday night. A24’s The Florida Project, directed by Sean Baker, and In The Fade, Magnolia Pictures’ Oscar hopeful starring Diane Kruger, were the two runners-up in voting for the coveted Gigi Guermont Audience Award at the 3rd annual edition of the Festival’s fall awards-season event. The Leisure Seeker, directed by Italian maestro Paolo Virzi, was a late addition to the Miami GEMS program. After the devastation wrought on the neighboring Florida Keys by Hurricane Irma in September, Festival organizers collaborated with Sony Classics to screen the film in GEMS with all ticket proceeds from the screening going to the United Way of the Florida Keys to support relief and rebuilding efforts. GEMS audiences voted in record numbers at this festival, making the race for the Audience Award winner extremely competitive. Only a fraction of votes separated the top contenders – Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name and Agnes Varda & JR’s Cannes-winning Faces Places also deeply moved the Miami GEMS audience. The awards announcement capped a four-day weekend of superb cinema where the gems of the cinematic season were screened as Florida and Miami premieres. The GEMS Audience Award is named in loving memory of Genevieve “Gigi” Guermont, a brilliant, rare, and timeless individual, a passionate supporter of Miami’s cultural institutions, and was an especially dedicated friend to the Festival, serving actively on the Host Committee, before she lost her battle with Cystic Fibrosis in 2015.

Helen Mirren will be honored at the 45th Chaplin Award Gala on Monday, April 30, 2018 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A beloved figure of stage, screen, and television, Mirren has bestowed upon the world a series of iconic performances in a career spanning more than fifty years. The annual event will be attended by a host of notable guests and presenters and will include movie and interview clips, culminating in the presentation of the Chaplin Award. “It is an honor and a pleasure for us to present Helen Mirren with our 45th Chaplin Award,” said Ann Tenenbaum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Board Chairman. “From housemaid to Queen and everything in between, Ms. Mirren has delivered masterful performances of complex characters, upending stereotype after stereotype along the way.” “Ever since her debut in Michael Powell’s Age of Consent in 1969, Helen Mirren has been lighting up screens with one finely crafted performance after another,” said Lesli Klainberg, the Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. “From her Oscar-winning role in The Queen to her brilliant work in The Long Good Friday, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, The Tempest, The Last Station, Red, Hitchcock, Woman in Gold, and Eye in the Sky, she has shown her exquisite range and proven her commitment to excellence and the art of cinema. The Film Society is honored to present the 45th Chaplin Gala Award to Helen Mirren.” The full press release can be read over at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.