Here comes a great conversation with Helen Mirren and Vanity Fair to promote “Golda” on its way into the 2024 awards season: About a month before Golda was released in US theaters via Bleecker Street on August 25, SAG-AFTRA went on strike, preventing Mirren from doing press for the movie, even if she technically could have. (The film was produced under an Equity union contract in the UK, rendering it ineligible for a SAG interim agreement.) Because the studio is not in the AMPTP, and with more distance from the strike’s launch, Mirren has begun campaigning for the film with her guild’s blessing as it leads a second life on digital (it’s now available on-demand and on platforms like Apple TV+ and Prime Video) and as Oscar season heats up. “I was given a written email from SAG to say…I can talk about it,” she says. “It’s a low-budget film, we don’t have a big marketing budget—so yes, it’s great to be able to talk.” To become Golda, she saw no choice but to take the portrayal that extra step: “Anybody playing Golda would’ve had to have certainly obeyed the physiognomy of the woman because she was so recognizable, so iconic.” The complete article can be read over at Vanity Fair.

Helen Mirren graces the cover of DuJour Magazine‘s Fall issue with an interview to promote the theatrical release of “Golda” and a fantastic new photoshoot. When Dame Helen Mirren was 12, her family took her to see an amateur production of Hamlet by the Southend Shakespeare Company in Essex. “It must have been terrible and I didn’t really understand it, but the whole experience was a revelation,” says Mirren. It was her first real exposure to the theater, and it made her realize she needed to be an actor. The complete article can be read on their website.

The play, the lights going down, the amazing story being told, the complexity of the dialogue – it all just exploded in my mind, the way things can do when you’re a prepubescent teenager. You know those books where there are thousands of pages and the print is really tiny? I found that and started reading about these incredible characters, from Caliban to Queen Margaret. Shakespeare is a lifetime of work and has perhaps become her own lifetime of work. Even then, it’s the great wonder of Shakespeare that you never quite get to the end of it. I’m a great believer that Shakespeare shouldn’t be read until you’ve seen it. I still love to go.

We’re really blessed right now with all the press coverage for “1923”‘s FYC campaign and the upcoming press cycle for August’s theatrical release of “Golda”. Helen Mirren graces the cover of the British Saga Magazine’s July issue as well as another cover on The Los Angeles Times’ The Envelope supplement. Both can be found in the photo gallery. Enjoy reading.

A big batch of recent articles have been added to the photo gallery, most of them concerning renewed promotion for “1923”, thanks to the recently opened Emmy voting timespan. While it’s difficult to tell how popular the series will be with voters after “Yellowstone” has been snubbed for a good number of years, a Best Actress nomination for Helen would be the most likely one out of the categories. For a complete list of added magazines, have a look at the list below.

For their roundtable to discuss their roles for the upcoming Emmys season, The Los Angeles Times paired old RSC colleagues Patrick Stewart and Helen Mirren, alongside Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Jeremy Strong (Succession), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets) and Diego Luna (Andor). Definately a must-read: So there they sat, Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart, speaking across a table one late April day with four other actors talking about the old days. They reminisced about being in the same late-1960s British theater scene, laboring to become top-flight classical thespians. “We both were saying earlier how strange it is to find ourselves here in Los Angeles and being screen actors,” Mirren says. “Because both of our ambitions when we started was to be theater actors and, very specifically, to be classical theater actors. There was a snotty attitude – wasn’t there?” “Somewhat,” Stewart agrees. “Of British actors towards American film acting, which I personally never subscribed to, that it wasn’t real acting. Real acting was doing ‘Lear’ in front of 2,000 people without a microphone,” Mirren continues with a laugh. “I always loved American actors. British acting at the time was like looking at a beautifully constructed piece of furniture. Beautifully carved. You know, perfect reproduction of something. And American acting was like the same piece of furniture, a bit more funky, but real. My ambition was to meld the two together. This sense of control and technique, for want of a better word, with the beauty of the improvisational, instinctive, wonderful thing that is American acting.” The complete article can be read here.

Some fantastic pictures and behind-the-scene video has been released for Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren’s upcoming Emmy Magazine cover story (on newsstands May 04, 2023). In the video, they got cheecky on what they are most grateful for in the modern world. “What have we got now that we didn’t have in 1923?” Mirren pondered while sitting next to her co-star. “Oh you know what I’m very appreciative of? Spanx,” she said as Ford laughed heartily. “And I appreciate your loaning them to me on the occasional basis,” he teased. Pictures and screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

AARP The Magazine is giving us an early Christmas present with a stunning cover story on Helen Mirren’s return to television with “1923”. The full article can be read on their website. An excerpt can be found below, alongside a fantastic video interview from the shoot. It’s the tail end of a sun-sparkled afternoon in Butte, Montana, and here I am in a windowless basement bar with — if you’ll excuse the expression — this dame I met a few minutes before. I was standing on the street outside the Miner’s Hotel, minding my own, when she pulled up in her car, looking a bit tiny behind the wheel. Then she whipped into this swift, effortless U-turn, settling without a hitch, nice and tight to the sidewalk. Oddly impressive. She pretty much jumped out of the car, and she seemed just a shade invigorated. “It’s extraordinary!” she told me later. “There’s no traffic! You can do a U-turn here in the middle of the road.” This dame, her name is Helen. Dame Helen Mirren. We shook hands right there on the street.

It’s still some weeks until the Merry season, but Helen Mirren turns out to be a fitting testimonial for this year’s Christmas themed magazine covers. Both the British Woman’s Weekly and the Australian Mindfood have put Mirren on their Christmas covers. There’s also a new cover from the Hungarian Nok Lapjá and and article in the British Woman & Home (with many thanks to Joan for the contribution). Enjoy the new additions.

Consequence TV has a lenghty profile and interview with Helen Mirren for the recent premiere of “Documentary Now”: It’s been five months since I spoke with Helen Mirren about hosting the IFC spoof series Documentary Now!, and I still haven’t gotten over her saying that she doesn’t think she’s funny. “I’m never comfortable with comedy,” she says, to be exact. “I’m so out of my depth with comedy. The only way I can deal with it is to be as serious as I possibly can be, if you know what I mean. I think if I was ever a part of a comedy team, I would definitely be the straight man. I wouldn’t be the funny one. I would be the one to set the joke up.” It’s an opinion that comes from her deep respect for the genre: “I think much too seriously so I love watching comedy. I’m very admiring, especially on film, comedy is very difficult. I’m very admiring of people who do comedy well on film. I think it’s easier to do it live because film is so technical to maintain the timing and the lightness of improvisational quality on film, it’s very difficult. But no, I’m not very good at comedy.” The complete interview can be read here.

Helen Mirren covers this week’s Sunday Life supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald. The interview, focusing on her fashion choices, can be read online in its entirity. These days, the word “influencer” gets bandied around a lot, a catch-all term for anyone trying to get noticed on social media. But if you want to see a real influencer, take one look at Helen Mirren, who at 77 has more fashion- and beauty-industry clout than most young Insta stars could ever dream of. Sitting across from me via a screen – Helen is in Cannes, I’m in London – wearing a slim-cut, round-neck green dress with her hair slicked back in a modern ponytail, she looks every inch an idol. The actor has the sort of presence and confidence that is alluring in anyone, whether 17 or 70.

I don’t have the easiest shape to deal with. I’m not tall or slim, I’m curvy and short, so only certain things look good and some very edgy things just don’t work. And that’s fine. There are people whose style I love but wouldn’t necessarily try to emulate because everyone’s different. I love Helena Bonham Carter’s fashion sense, and how Kristen Stewart dresses. Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett have great style, too. They’re all women who really push the boat out – and that’s something I admire. (Helen Mirren, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 07, 2022)