Even more magazine scans and cover stories from this week have been added to the photo gallery, including lenghty interviews in The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and People Magazine and a cover story from the British Yours. All articles and interviews cover today’s theatrical release of “The Duke” in the United Kingdom and/or Helen Mirren’s Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, which she will receive this Sunday. For a complete list, check the previews below.

With Friday’s theatrical release of “The Duke” coinciding with Sunday’s broadcast of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, lots of interviews and profiles on Helen Mirren have been added in the US and UK press, including a great cover from the Mail on Sunday and lenghty interviews in OK! and Entertainment Weekly. Check the list below for all updates and enjoy reading.

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.

Ahead of receivinf the SAG Life Achievement Award for her work, Helen Mirren talks to In Style and looks back on her 50-year career. “When you’re young, you don’t think about where you’ll be in your 70s. You can’t imagine it, really. You just go from day to day, month to month, year to year. But I was obsessive and completely one-dimensional about the fact that all I wanted to do was act. I didn’t want to get married; my private life was completely secondary to my professional life. There was never any question in my mind about that. I remember thinking it must be so incredible to have a script, go to the park, and learn your lines. That was my fantasy of being an actress — how unbelievable it would be if somebody employed me to learn lines. Of course, I eventually did have a script under my arm. And now I hate learning lines. [laughs]”

In the last 10 to 15 years, I’ve found I have a certain power [in choosing my roles]. The British TV show Prime Suspect started me on that trajectory, and I’ve produced some of the projects I’ve worked on since. But I much prefer when someone thinks of me for a part. I don’t like generating stuff for myself — the most fun roles are the ones that come out of left field. I also go back to do theater work every few years. That’s what keeps you on your toes, and I like to shake things up. I never want to be stuck.

The complete essay can be read over at the In Style website.

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.

More pictures and videos from Tuesday’s premiere for “The Duke” have been added, including interviews with Helen Mirren on the red carpet. The same day, she and Jim Broadbent were guests on Graham Norton’s show alongside Adele, Golda Rosheuvel and George Ezra. You can find the full appearance in the video archive. Check the list below for all updates.

Dame Helen had a busy Tuesday in London with appearances at the premiere of “The Duke” as well as a taping of “The Graham Norton Show”, which will air this Friday in the UK. Pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

During the Christmas Holidays, I recapped some of Helen’s films that I found in better quality – and which serve as a great testament of her acting range if you throw these three films togehter: There’s “Eye in the Sky” from 2015, in which Helen played a UK-based military colonel in command of a secret drone opteration. Then, there’s Paul Schrader’s 1990 drama/horror “The Comfort of Strangers”, which is one of the most deranged projects in Helen’s career. Nevertheless, it was great seeing the restored version in such great quality, I hope the screencaptures show, it remains a guilty pleasure. The third film is a 1982 BBC adaptation of Stephen Poliakoff’s “Soft Targets”, in which Helen draws Ian Holm’s Soviet journalist character into the eccentric upper-middle-class English life. Enjoy the new screencaptures.

Dame Helen Mirren has said questions over the choice to have her play Israel’s first female prime minister, Golda Meir, are “utterly legitimate”. The casting for the upcoming biopic Golda, directed by Guy Nattiv, was criticised by fellow actor Dame Maureen Lipman last month because Mirren is not Jewish. Meir, who died in 1978, was Israel’s prime minister between 1969 and 1974. The new film is set during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 and started shooting in November 2021. Mirren told the Daily Mail, as reported by The Guardian the question of her appropriateness for the role had occurred to her too. “It was certainly a question that I had, before I accepted the role. [Meir] is a very important person in Israeli history,” she said. “I said, ‘Look, Guy, I’m not Jewish, and if you want to think about that, and decide to go in a different direction, no hard feelings. I will absolutely understand.’” Lipman previously said that the challenge of acting was to become the character you are playing regardless of background. But, speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she added that actors who shared the background of their character should be looked at first. On the portrayal of Meir specifically, she highlighted that “the Jewishness of the character is so integral”. Responding to Lipman’s criticism, Mirren said: “I do believe it is a discussion that has to be had – it’s utterly legitimate.” “I very much respect Maureen. And I love her as an actress, absolutely. “I’d love to bump into her and sit and have a cup of tea and talk about it,” she added. “Dame to dame, I suggest.” She added: “‘My only real fear is if I’m really bad as Golda … in which case, I’ll be toast.”

Next month, Helen Mirren will receive the Life Achievement Award at the (most probably virtual) Screen Actors Guild Awards on February 27. In a special For Your Consideration issue, the guild’s official magazine is bestowing us with a wonderful cover story and article that features an outstanding new editorial of Helen. Have a look at the scans below.