According to The Hollywood Reporter, Helen Mirren’s ardent feminism came to the fore Thursday night when the Oscar-winning actress was asked during a keynote conversation in Toronto what she looked forward to beyond the “horrible situation” of the current Israel-Hamas war. “Gosh, that’s an incredibly difficult question, because you don’t want to be naïve and silly. Of course one hopes for peace,” Mirren told the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center during an appearance at its 2023 Spirit of Hope Benefit. Praised as a steadfast ally in the fight against anti-Semitism by the human rights organization after she received their 2023 Humanitarian Award, Mirren’s informal conversation was overshadowed by events in the Middle East after Israel declared war on the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza after its Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel. Asked at one point during the keynote what frightens her today, Mirren answered without pause: “Oh, October the seventh. That scares me the most, and whatever it is in humanity that makes people able to do that, whatever it is that pushes them to commit those acts, whatever brainwashing, whatever it is that can turn peoples’ minds to those actions.” Pointing to other grave human atrocities in history, she referenced the Holocaust during the Second World War and America’s traumatic history of lynching African-American men to terrorize their communities. “Lynchings were very prevalent. And I just saw recently postcards of an audience at a lynching, that they’d send to each other, as sort of, ‘what fun we had the other night at the lynching.’ What it is in us, human beings? Is it fundamental to us? It is so much a part of our nature as all the goodness we have,” Mirren additionally asked during the Toronto gala. Mirren also addressed the controversy over a non-Jew like herself being cast to play the Israeli leader. “It’s a legitimate discussion. The whole idea of casting has really been blown out of the water recently, and I applaud that. It’s completely right,” she said. At the same time, Mirren said she would not have taken the part of Golda Meir if the biopic itself had not been directed by an Israeli, Nattiv. She added, “Without that authentic voice, I just wouldn’t have done (the role) with someone else.” Edit: Pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

Helen Mirren’s latest feature film, “Golda”, has been released on home video and on-demand in the United States last week. The drama, which focuses on Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, can be also found on streaming platforms (check availability here). While fans in Europe will have to wait a little longer – it’s currently in theaters in the United Kingdom – screencaptures from the Blu-Ray have been added to the photo gallery with many thanks to US fan Joan for sending them in.

This week, Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford were guests at the Festival Lumière in Lyon, France. Hackford was the recipient of a Life Achievement Award for his outstanding career in directing – and Helen was on hand for the festival’s Robert Altman retrospective, which featured a screening of “Gosford Park” in her attendance. Pictures from both events have been added to the photo gallery.

Here’s our final anniversary update, and this one comes with a back story. 10 years ago, when I was working on launching the site, my good online friend Anke was cleaning up her archives and sent me a couple of tapes featuring old Helen Mirren appearances from the time she promoted “The Queen”. A decade later, when I was preparing the site’s 10th anniversary, I stumbled upon those tapes and realised I never digitalized them. So today, with many thanks to Anke, we can watch Helen’s appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, This Morning, Film 2006 with Jonathan Ross and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross for the first time in their entirety. Screencaptures from all shows have been added as well, and you can also find screencaptures from the 2001 television pilot Georgetown, in which Helen starred, but which was never picked up as a series. Enjoy all the updates.

We’re on our sixth day of the Archives’ week-long anniversary celebration, so only one more day until tomorrow’s finale 🙂 Today, lots of additional editorial photography has been added, ranging from 1969 to 2020, so there’s plenty of Helen Mirren through the years. For a complete overview, have a look at the list below. Enjoy and check back for tomorrow’s finale.

In our second update of public appearances pictures, we find more photo calls for “Prime Suspect” and various awards shows Helen has attended throughout the ’90s and ’00s, including the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards. The most recent updates come from 2012’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as well as early 2023’s promotion of “1923” at the Deadline Contenders conversation panel. All updates are listed below. Enjoy.

On our fourth day, we update Helen’s public appearances with some fantastic additions from the past. This update includes pictures from various ’60s and ’70s events, promotions for “Extremities” and “2010: The Year We Make Contact” as well as pictures from an actors conversation panel at the 1990 Telluride Film Festival, which included Helen and Christopher Walken (presenting “The Comfort of Strangers”) as well as Liam Neeson and Sissy Spacek. A complete list of updates can be found below.

The second batch of Helen’s career photography update features promotional stills from various “Prime Suspects”, some great behind-the-scenes pictures of her directorial debut “On the Edge” from 2001 and additional stills and on-set pictures from her classic performances, inlcuding “Calendar Girls”, “The Queen” and “Catherine the Great”. As always, a complete list of updates can be found below. Enjoy and check back tomorrow for more.

On we go with our week-long celebration for The Helen Mirren Archives’ 10th anniversary with a massive career update consisting of production stills, on-set pictures, promotionals and theatre programmes from many of Helen’s projects throughout the years. In the first part of this update, we find theatre pictures from “Troilus and Cressida”, “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Madame Bovary”, some deleted scenes from “Caligula” and on-set pictures from “Hussy” and “The Mosquito Coast”. To view all updates, check out the list below.

Our celebration week is officially open, starting with lots of additional magazine scans from as early as 1972 (with two cover stories promoting Ken Russell’s “Savage Messiah”) to 2019. These additions feature some great cover stories from the 1990s and 2000s that were new to me. For a complete list of articles, have a look at the list below. Enjoy, and check back tomorrow for more 🙂