Conversations with Helen Mirren

good afternoon my name is Janel Riley whoo Wow and I can project I'm thrilled to welcome you to the sag-aftra foundation conversation with Helen Mirren this is an actress who has done everything from Shakespeare to Saturday Night Live she's conquered every medium with a Tony Award an Academy Award and four Emmy Awards to show for it this year she has nominated for two SAG Awards for her work in Trumbo and the woman in gold please welcome Helen Mirren thank me rogues and vagabonds as well actors our work we're always called in medieval England and I always love that I think we are all rogues and firebombs really do you know good tired of enemies standing ovations must follow you everywhere you go Americans are always very very generous in kind in England it takes an awful lot getting started I do not stand just not easily impressed er just a fire in the theater uh well this is a SAG after audience and so I always like to start by asking and this might be strange since you began your career in England but do you remember when you first got your sag card yes I do I came to America to do a film called 2010 and it was my first sort of role in an American movie and and that was when I got my first sidecut so I was very I'm very proud owner of sad karlie ever since you've done you did so many movies before then because they're all in Britain they're all British films and obviously I was member of the British Union in in Britain it's it's it's one Union covers both equity but no so Wow 2010 yeah I mean the movie not the year movie yeah yeah but we were able in 2010 it was like so far in the future you couldn't I imagine there was flying cars yeah so I do want to go back and start at the beginning I know I don't believe your family was in the business no no my family no one in my family were well in the in the business of theater or show business or film or anything at all so how did you first know you wanted to be an actor um I knew I wanted to be a well I I saw a very bad production of Hamlet when I was about 14 it was an amateur production so it you know couldn't have been very good but it maybe I was third 12 or 13 and it just the story of it really transyl oohed Lee transfixed me you know I don't think I'd ever seen or read Hamlet so can you imagine watching that play when you don't know that a philia goes mad know that Hamlet's going to die you know you literally you can watch it as a thriller purely as a thriller so that wasn't in an absolutely seminal experience for me but I actually thinking about that I came from equivalent of Coney Island you know my hometown was sort of like British equivalent of Coney Island it was AM a place they called it on sea but actually it's on the Thames Estuary so it wasn't really I'm seeing at all but it's where the working-class people of London would go for their you know the weekend for a Saturday night they go to get drunk and have a fight and throw up and go home oh that was a great night oh I had a blast but they had the longest pier in the world in southend-on-sea longer than any pier in America was literally the longest pier in them in the world and at the end of the pier they would have shows and I do remember my parents taking me to see a show at the end of the pier when I must have been about five and again being just transported by the magic of what was happening on stage which was a variety show with comedians and dancers and stuff like that but I remember being absolutely mesmerized by it and I'm curious about this bad production of Hamlet only because I love that you know it's shown through even though the show wasn't good that Shakespeare was so powerful I dig spear definitely but storytelling you know and and and the ability of what we do to transport people in in their imaginations I think it was that that was the quality of the production or even the fact that it was Shakespeare I think in a way was kind of immaterial I think that wonderful gift that we've all been given to be able to work in an art form that has that ability to completely transport people at the moment of them watching it it's a magical thing isn't it really that that people can sit in a theater or in a cinema and they know that you're not that character obviously clearly you know but they're they're willing to engage that moment of suspension of disbelief and be carried through on the story and cry when it's sad and laugh when it's funny and be entertained be moved be educated be all of the things that we can do when we do our jobs what an amazingly wonderful thing to be able to do that is you know and I believe you first got involved with the National Youth Theatre I did still see that that was my ticket into the profession coming from a world and I'm sure many of you sitting here have had the same experience it is like you know like The Wizard of Oz it's like the Golden City isn't it that you you want to be a part of and and you just don't know how to get there how do I get there you know if you have no family or this just seems to be nowhere to get no ability to get there especially if you know you don't come from a very strong economic background and I didn't you know I was sort of you know my parents were not remotely wealthy or even well-off so you know it seemed impossible in impossibility but there was this organization in Britain called the National Youth Theatre and they would take young people who couldn't afford to go to drama school I never went to drama school you know that was impossible and kids from all kinds of backgrounds and and we were do X play play every every in the summer holidays and that was my absolutely my ticket into the professional world because it gave me a space for people to be able to see my work which is so incredibly important for us isn't it and and I'll mention right here that I'm I'm a great supporter of the I'm sure many of you members of equity as well but of the initiative to keep the small theaters open I mean I I'm a great believer in unions and and in working good working practices and people being paid properly for their for their efforts and for their work but I think here in Los Angeles is a very specific sort of environment and I think it's so important for actors to be able to have the venue to present their work in in this town in particular so I I think that's very important because it's all about being seen it's all about being seen absolutely and you know it's so hard to to put yourself up there in front when there are so many other people putting themselves up there it's very very difficult and it's impossible to show how people how great you are until you can show them how great you are you know and did your work with them lead directly to the Royal Shakespeare Company yes it did Wow yes it did absolutely I got an agent from that it you know it was great it was absolutely great and and I trained as a teacher actually I trained for three years teacher I never trained as an actress but but as soon as I left my college I went straight into the profession it into the Royal Shakespeare Company basically yeah so I mean you've never had any formal training or did you no no my training was sort of AMA on the hoof as it is for most of us really because even if you do go to drama school it can never compare really to what you face in in the real world does it I mean it's it's completely different so we all learn on the job actually and that's another thing I love about my profession is that we're all in the same boat what we really are you know we're all sharing the same space and and telling the story together I am a great believer in in that and and we all learn on the job that's what we all do we accept an audience question about there again I apologize I mispronounce anyone's name but I think it's a hose I has I am blouse I want Hosea Josiah sorry gotta write the third time yeah wants to know what training has been most beneficial to your craft formal or on the job um I mean for pure training especially for the theatre vocal training it's very important very often you do that you train your voice on the job because because because of doing a chose a week and you know you have to you have to have a vocal ability that can carry you through that so if you're going to do a lot of theatre obviously vocal training is very very important uh for film I don't know you know film is such a very different thing isn't it it's yours it's so much more to do with who you are on film and the parts of yourself that you can't control you know nothing about I would say where we have simultaneously two people what we all of us we are the person we know ourselves to be within ourselves and carrying you know seeing life through our eyes and carrying on down our path but we are the person that the world sees and that's a person we never see sometimes we get a glimpse of it on the screen a glimpse of what other people see but in reality they're we're carrying this other person with us alongside of us who we will never meet and never really get to know and that's the the us that they're you that note that that that the rest of the world sees that I see when I sit here and look at you you will never see that person it's so fascinating but anyways how's a film ISM film is a is a different animal and and and it's so much to do with the the intrinsic nature of who you are in the most in the deepest sort of way I was very intimidated by film when I first started doing film I just didn't know what I know what all these cables were and the lights and where's that where is the camera right where was it look like what's the camera look like and and I I just I didn't know what I was doing I call I called it rabbit in the headlights acting you know turn over action is it time to speak now you know like cut what what what terrible and I went through and then I I was cast in Mosquito Coast with Harrison Lord and thank God that was like the greatest day of my life when I got a call say I got that job you know with Harrison you know it's like ah that's it you don't like this is it my life is from here on the end is going to be fantastic I was so excited I'm so over the moon and Harrison as I'm sure many of you know you've probably met him and know him but he's the kindest very generous actor to work with just really lovely and he so knew what he was doing you know he's such a professional the thus the archetypal profession professional on the set understands the camera the lens that everything you know the frame and I knew nothing I was completely ignorant and and I thought I'd use the experience to try and free myself up in front of the camera because freedom is what it's all about isn't it it's it's that ability to be free in front of the camera that's why I've always said my inspirations for acting a babies and dogs on camera yeah because they are mesmerizing you can't take your eyes off them can you because they're so in the moment do they say as we say and and and that's it's the endless battle to get to that point where you are as free as a baby or a dog but anyway so I used mosquito because it's a sort of an exercise really to try and free myself up and I thought I will just be unconscious of the camera I would just be in my character I woke up in the space we shot it in Belize so we're in the jungle anyway so it was wonderfully sort of this this environment I would just and poor Peter Peter where who's directing I drove him crazy critique Helen get in the shot Helen you're not in the shot get over there there you're in the shot I'm busy acting away oh yeah doing great stuff I'm sure Julian so it took me a while to learn that but if it was a good process it did help me to sort of free myself up and then and then I did many you know a lot of prime suspect on television and and that was the thing that made me and learn about the technique of filmmaking and that was absolutely invaluable and and I started and I still do now on film sets I hang around the camera you know listening at what the director is saying to the cameraman just to understand what the shot is you know what the rhythm of the shot is really is it going to be a dolly shot what what in other words learning the technique of filmmaking and I think that is very very valuable actually I mean film such a weird thing isn't it it's it's this balance between utter naturalism freedom and this heavy ponderous thing called filmmaking with the cables and the lights and them and the camera is all a little bit lighter than it used to be but still it's it's very ponderous the whole thing so you've got this extraordinary balance to try and get on film and and so I'm always blown away when I when I see a film that I feel has sort of magically made you forget the ponderous nature of filmmaking I think joy for example this year was a film that I I felt did that you know you you some films you're very aware of the filmmaking it's very beautiful you're kind of aware of it it's formal and you know presented and and can be utterly gorgeous but I love it when you have that feeling of slight random wildness in a film and it's strange to hear you say that it wasn't until the Mosquito Coast because you had done some big movies before that you've done Caligula and yes tell us about that that's I knew that was great because um he had this way of filmmaking he'd set the shot up almost like you're in the theater so dollarsí I was used to that and we'd all be like I appear on a sort of a stage in various states of undress and uh and then there'd be a bank of cameras 1 2 3 4 cameras like miles and miles away what you didn't know that one of those cameras was in extreme closeup Wow and was moving from one person to another catching big close-ups like this but the camera was an awfully long way away one cam was getting the wide then there'd be another camera usually roaming as well get it picking up two shots so you'd play it through like a like a theater piece so that was an interesting wave of filming but Excalibur - I mean you had done that you were young but I say yes yes but no but in Excalibur we were all so ignorant about filmmaking I mean Liam Neeson me cable burn you know people who went on to have very illustrious film careers all of us complete ignorant misses and for John Boorman you know he he must have just tearing his hair up you know I remember we were at this it was an example we rehearsed a scene I've seen where I you know I was sort of doing important stuff in the scene so we rehearsed it and he said maybe if you come down from here Helen and and and then you do but here and then you go over there you know how you rehearse it so we rehearsed it and and he said okay we're going was up um and I went away and I'm in my trailer I'm thinking at home no I'm not going to do that that I'm not going to do that that's right I shouldn't no I I know what I'm going to do I'm going to do something I'm going to do this so I come back after 2 or 3 hours they call me on the set and I say to John John I've changed my mind I'm not going to do that anymore because I didn't understand about setting up cameras and lights I had no idea no I just hadn't thought that that you can't change it because it means you've got to completely change the setup so how do you take that is it though you're doing it like that come back my setup is I mean did you find though that particularly xcalibur but also the long Good Friday which was you know a hugely acclaimed movie did that sort of open doors for you in Hollywood did we come calling um I long Good Friday but yes that did get attention here in America I don't know what it was that made me suddenly now trying to think of it I became America's Russian actress for a while and I tried to lie that was I did 2010 that's where my husband asked me to do White Nights I think I won I think it was winning I know I think it was winning a I won the can best film actress award for a film I did called cow a very good movie by then I was beginning yeah beginning to learn it takes a long time doesn't it really you know to really learn and understand the process did me anyway I mean it took me a long time I think it was winning Best Actor Actress a can and then from that I was asked to do 2010 and then from that I was asked to do my husband's film White Nights and then sort of and then whatever happened happened after that but uncertainly prime suspect prime is important but yes you're right I dunno I've done a lot of television in England and I've done and I'd done quite a few movies we have to talk about prime suspect to be kept for not only because it's awesome but I mean you started with that character in 1991 and I believe the last one aired in 2006 probably yeah so you spent 15 years with Jane I did but you know it was a great game because it wasn't like like you shoot that sort of series here I would do one for our story and then not do it again for 18 months go off and do theater do films do lots of other things and then about every two two or two years or something then I'd come back into another for our story so it was wonderful like that so yes it was over that length of time but in between I did loads and loads of other things yeah was there because back then at least in America there was sort of a bias against TV that you either did TV or you did yes yeah is it and how isn't it great that that's change that's fantastic I think it's it's so what and it it's TV that has shown the way that has led them led the charge so brilliantly I mean it all it always used to be for female actors that your best roles were on television they just always were especially you know 20 30 years ago but that you were given far more interesting opportunities are opportunities on television then you were in in film even if you're a big movie star it was just the kinds of roles that were being written for women in general were just really boring basically very boring and one-dimensional and to find the the interesting complex characters you had to go to television so was there any hesitation about doing TV because you were in the middle of a thriving film career no you know that that prejudice didn't exist in England good nobuta's were ahead of us no it wasn't that other things because our film industry so awful it was dreadful and I used to say it used to be that British film is alive and well and living on television because the the writers the directors the actors and a lot of your you know people who subsequently became extremely successful Hollywood directors started on British television that's right which British directors British born directors so it was true and the kind of work we were doing on I mean I did for example a piece called blue remembered Hills which is by a great writer called Dennis Potter and if any of you've heard of him but that was the kind of piece that it was experimental in the sense that we were all in our 30s and 40s but we were playing seven-year-old children Wow and it was about seven-year-old children and what happens in their little world and he all played by adults so you know it was an amazing piece it was all on film it was fantastic but but that was this kind of work that was being done on British television which you wouldn't have a hope in hell of ever doing you know in movies so you literally got to play a child because this was your seven-year-old yes yes have you ever played a dog because when she played a baby in a dog yeah I'd love to do the research the dog it was fun doing research on playing a seven-year-old that of course brings us to another one of your iconic roles since we're talking about them playing Queen Elizabeth the second in the 2006 film the Queen um again how did this project come to you because it like on paper or just hearing about it it feels like it could have gone so wrong yeah instead is this beautiful character study and so complex and like you know someone who I never thought that I would have huge feelings of sympathy for I find myself carrying about we're all humans aren't we that's the thing it came about I was doing the last prime suspect and it was the first day of the read-through and on the on those days with prams aspect I would always make sure that I was the first person before any of the other actors arrived so I could sort of welcome people and make them feel like they're a part of it a team and a group you know so I was I was doing this and our producer Andy Harries was at the other end of the room kind of watching this process going on and and he said and he was thinking well that's that funny that unit they're treating her as if she's the queen and and then he looked at me in profile you know okay she looks a bit like the queen actually and and there in his mind was born the idea of making a movie about the Queen and so the idea was presented to me and you know the British have a weird love-hate relationship with the royal family they kind of adore them but they want to rip them down all the time it's a very weird dysfunctional relationship and and I I said yes I'm interested but only I will have to read the script because I don't to be a part of something that is mean mean and and unfairly attacking or satirical or you know just mean-spirited so they they went away and the script got read out written and I thought it was wonderful so with great trepidation and fear I signed up for it because in in Britain you know the royal family as I say flies on you know it's right the press everything you know the attention its own tense and I believe you have met the Queen but it was before you shot the movie yes I have met the Queen before I shot the movie yes I did but very briefly in a me and Chloe Sevigny actually elementary school andum together exactly the two of us is sort of tea party and I mean a big tea party with like 300 people there no not me in the Queen and Tori's the venue I want to see that movie yeah so it was just a brief introduction just very brief yes absolutely but did you draw on that when you were preparing to play her um I did little tiny bit really it is what everyone says is there's something very twinkly about the Queen you know you see this rather you know that sort of you know no serious space but actually when she's doing her her job and she's acting she's acting the Queen actually is what she's doing do you know what I mean she's very twinkly and very you know there's a nice little thing going on there and I really wanted to bring that into my in characterization of her it was difficult to do because it was a dark story so there wasn't a lot of moments to to bring that in but I wanted to bring that in I mean you've played real people before and and since the Queen obviously do you is your research process differ because you have so many real funny travel research you don't have a research with I mean with obviously you know imaginative characters you have to you know maybe look at what what are they they're a teacher okay I received my research what being a teacher is but you know the brilliant thing about playing a real life character is that it's your backstory you've got like the best the deepest the most complex backstory you can possibly imagine the downside is that you'll never be as good as they are at being them so you're lonely ever Pete if you're lucky 65% as good as they are you know but you have to you know accept that and then you played her again last year on broad unquoted before that I should say in England in the audience for what she won a Tony I should mention it was a very different piece very very very different in the play went from it was it was her just talking to her prime ministers and and it went from her whole life you know from 26 to 85 whatever she is now so one had to do this that that span of age but also it went randomly you know you started off at in your 50s and then the next scene you're in you're 26 and then the next scene you're in your ages and the next scene you're back being 50 again and so you went backwards and forwards like this but with these amazing quick changes it was of great I mean was there any hesitation in revisiting a role that was so ironic with the same writer no less yes though absolutely because you know doesn't matter how many things different things you do sometimes certain roles get you know put on your shoulders and and and you never really quite wriggle them off for a long while it was Jane Tennison you know I was I knew if I'd been knocked over by a bus you know Jane Tennison dies I can't now say the Queen eyes yet but calimero famous for playing the Queen dies so you know I it for me it's fun might be the fun of my job is is to investigate all these different worlds that you get the chance of of of investigating and imaginatively putting yourself into so I want that world to constantly change have you ever gotten any feedback on you know what she thinks cuz I've heard things and you know that aren't official but that she really liked the movie and I have to think that a part of it that's very unofficial I even I don't know that honestly but I was invited I couldn't go unfortunately but I was invited to dinner with my husband about six months the year after the film came out to dinner you know a big dinner with lots of other people but I don't think I would ever have been invited if they'd hated it exactly and then again the Queen very kindly invited me to tea only this time it was a tea with only about six other people was cluesive any one of them know who can make whatever sack no Harry was the one no it wasn't you know obviously only it was dekat if so if so it oh so embarrassing it was mortified but they very kindly invited me so I think that was a little sign of of approbation at the right word yeah you weren't able to go or are you as a probiem isn't there which is bad isn't it and that probation which is good am i right yes right were you able to go or yes I went oh I know I went absolutely I was sitting next to um the Duke of Edinburgh I was just sitting in between the Duke of Edinburgh oh no the Queen wasn't sitting next to me the Sheikh of Bahrain was sitting next as you do as you did I all shake of somewhere Qatar some assumption and then the Queen was sitting on the other side of the Sheikh he was there cuz he was big horsey guy it was a big it was a a scotch so it was the Corsi thing and I know nothing about horses I'm not a horsey person the Duke of Edinburgh had been rather cruelly treated in the movie so I'm just like oh god I hope he doesn't miss the movie and I was tea you know sandwiches and I had my tea and the the milk was over there across the Duke of Edinburgh and like the whole I don't really remember anything about the tea or what anyone said except all I could think of was how do I get the milk is it alright to ask that you had better to pass that out and then I went into a complete funk what do I call him if I asked him to pass the milk do I call him Sir do at door do I call him your highness do you what do I call him what I would I can't like I can't remember what I'm supposed to call him and then or do I wait for a Fortman to come and get the milk I so anyway I all I could think of was the milk and we sort of use that in the play of the audience with one of the one of the Prime Minister's that's you know not knowing what to do with the milk and the sugar tongs and stuff like that I have to think on some degree the Queen has to just be like yeah Helen Mirren you know is so great for our Tunes at that time very very funny cartoons in the newspapers they were great there was a collection of very funny ones something I love is uh I mean you've done action films before but you kind of became an action star after winning the Oscar which I've read and that's a treasure because that's the thing fine you know going into it and I think probably winning the Oscar did give me the opportunity to do that to do that you know read they probably wouldn't have thought of me otherwise but isn't that the fun of it that you can go from one from one extreme to the other so I was very happy and excited to be in red yeah and do you treat that as seriously as Shakespeare I mean all your roles it's funny you know watching people like Bruce Willis who has such masters at that kind of acting it's so different from you know a lot of the work that I've done and I really really studied Bruce you know what are you doing what are you doing he doesn't look like you're doing anything what is it you're doing you know you'd be this close to him and then on the screen it's fantastically so you know I I always try to learn there's always some you know there's always such a lot to learn and I learn from everyone I learned from young actors people you know when you're working with a young actor you learn as much from them as you do from the experienced actors which brings us to this year in which you have not one but two incredible roles a woman in gold and of course Trumbo I want to start with woman in gold because Maria Altmann is is she's such an amazing woman and again playing a real-life person how did that story find its way to you and how did you go about preparing to play her it came in the normal wave of a script an idea a script and I didn't know anything about that story so it was a revelation to me as well I thought how did I never read about this this is fantastic and then of course I had the great pleasure of finding out as I started the research that Maria was such an extraordinary character did a wonderful character to play with a natural wit and energy and fierceness that was really really a treat you know it's lovely to find out that you're the person you've committed to play you actually kind of fall in love with and and I did with Maria Altmann sadly because she wasn't a celebrity or anything there was very little film of her and I would have loved to have had more film to watch you know it's fascinating you know you you watch a unit first you watch the okay what color are eyes what's a hair like you know how does she use her hands how does she sit what's her demeanor and then you start digging a little deeper and a little deeper and I noticed for example with the the Queen you know she's always so calm and everything's physically controlled and contained and disciplined incredibly disciplined she never leans back in a chair she's always forward like this never like this he'd like that but sometimes she's like this she's sitting very quietly but she's doing this and there's this beat going on inside her this fast beat and there's a weird you know wonderful contradiction between the calm outside and this inner beat that's going like this so you know you look at little things like that and with Maria Altmann I I watched a long deposition she doesn't say anything she's just listening but the quality of her listening is so strong so powerful and the anger and the passion inside of her again rather like the Queen not particularly shown and a lot of it is in profile but you just you just feel it so strongly and very very impressive so I would so try to get that into Maria and I thought the only way to do that because I I don't have her memories that's not a part of my life so I had to recreate her memories and put them into my mind so really the most of the research the work for Maria was that process of reading revisiting Holocaust material rereading the history of what happened in Vienna in those days looking at that film not looking at from Maria looking at the film of what she swiftness as a you know 18 19 20 year old and putting that firmly in my mind as the overriding presence in my mind so in every shot with Maria in that movie if mater VI if she was being funny I felt that had to be in her head all the time kind of on the opposite end of this remarkable and controlled woman is Hedda Hopper yes in trouble oh yeah although is it wrong that I kind of love her I mean she no I don't think it's wrong because she's so especially the world that she came yeah you know and what she made for herself the incredible one single-minded sort of ambition and and strength of character the forced her way through into that you know there's something admirable about that and she was and the other thing about her was she genuinely I think you know it's difficult for me because you know I watch because with there are Hedda hoppers out there aren't there people and called her maybe comes to mind I'm unlike that but you know they have a but III know Ann Coulter has described herself as a comedian hasn't she interesting as in other words that's a kind of a performance she does I you know to me what a weird thing yeah exactly but you know it's her I think she kind of believes it all but as also it's a performance that makes her money and gives her brings her fame and celebrity and and it's her you know and it's her and what's word job you know her profession what's water I can't think is right word but and I wonder if there was a bit of header in that but but I do think header genuinely saw herself as an absolute American patriot and loved America and loved the red white in the blue of America and was passionately committed to that you know she was a complex interesting character and I'd love to know more about her actually I mean it is such a fascinating story did you know much about the Hollywood blacklist I did know yes I knew quite a bit about it not I actually did hadn't quite understood the Dalton ecchi and many of them went to prison that was the thing that shocked me I didn't know for some reason I hadn't been aware I knew that they've been blacklisted they weren't allowed to work in fact in Britain we were the benefits beneficiaries of that because a couple of the blacklisted wonderful blacklisted directors came to England to work Joe Losey being one of them and became you know one of the real stars of of the good side in British film I was a little bit of it it was both mostly around Joe Losey yeah it just plain had a hopper did you keep any of her hats or costumes I would have to do I went with to either Daniel did a great job with costuming absolutely brilliant I'll have to ask if I can have one yeah and did you ever feel bad being so mean to Bryan Cranston yes because as you know he's one of the kindest best hearted men in our business I mean I know it's acting but sometimes do you ever like after they yelled cut just a capsule Oh uh-uh no I said was that bad enough or should I bless I do want to take a couple more questions from the audience I have one from Michaela Hewes I think hopefully I got that right what is your process when approaching a character inside out or outside in what seems to come first and have you had a part that's kicked your butt and you didn't think you'd find it yes yes I have had a couple of those what I felt so out of my depth not necessarily for the character the years for the character and also that just the whole movie and the environment and but outside in or inside out well you know the outside is important to know I love the process of finding the hair and the makeup and and the costuming it was funny with Hedda Hopper it was all about the eyebrows all about the eyebrows and I really looked at her watched and I realized she had the eyebrows weird eyebrows had started going like this so we would my makeup person I would spend at least half an hour in the makeup trailer just getting the eyebrows right because it it informed the whole expression and she was like this no so the eyebrows were incredibly important and I loved costume fitting even I love that process and and you know and the shoes and all of that stuff I love it I love going to costume houses and looking at all the costumes and I've always been a costume junkie so yes an incredibly important part of the process and but the more important part is the inside out part you can't have the one without the other at all and I don't know I'm a great believer in I know Americans in my experience with American actors who I absolutely respect so much and if we have time I'll tell you a story why but I think they are fantastic and I've always looked at American actors as my inspiration as I say with Bruce what are you doing how do you do that I can't see you do it it's driving me crazy you know and under and I've just really found inspiration with American actors but I've noticed in read-throughs you know a reading of a script the first read-through or something did America a lot of American actors just won't engage at all they in audition I know you do you guys go in and you give it you do it but for some reason on a read-through so many actors just mumble it and that you can't really hear what they're saying and and they won't seem afraid of Kaseem afraid of committing I love the first read-through I said go for it you know because your instinct is working you've never read it before I am very lazy and I hardly ever read a script before I go to the first read-through so I'll because I want that fresh how how does it come from nowhere you know I want that coming from nowhere moment which will never happen again because now you're in the process so I love that and I I go hell for leather on on read-throughs so tell us your story about American actors I think we have to hear that yes I did a play called month in the country a long time ago and I did the play in England so for our play long play and all the English actors came off such long play how we learn you have to learn our lines I don't know how I learn my lines you know so we would work from 10:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon and then we'd have the afternoon off to learn our line and we get on and we're the first run you know first we are in tech and two or three of the actors still don't really know their lines they're still stumbling so eventually they get there by the first night thank God they get there but I come to do the same play in America completely different cars completely different production I'm the only one who knows their lines because I've done it before but it's a completely new cast of American characters actors sorry at the end we had four weeks rehearsal at the end of the second week they were all completely off the book now I mean solid off the book they done their work and it blew my mind and it revealed to me an element in American actors their just their commitment to their profession their passion their dedication and I was just so touched and amazed and moved by that and and it affirmed something that I kind of knew I had only seen them on screen and being blown away by by their naturalism you know and and now I saw this other side of that naturalism which was the hard work side of it that the passion and the commitment America yeah we have a question from you Kelsey Hewlett wants to know the emotional way back there what's to do the most emotionally challenging role of your career and why PS I love you you know that you have emotional scenes often in in films but the consistently emotional thing I can't you know I can't really think of any one particular film um ironically I did a film called Calendar Girls um a while ago it what the film wasn't emotionally demanding it was fun and I was with great actresses but at that time my brother who I hadn't seen for a long time was dying of cancer in the Philippines and he didn't have any money and he had problems with and he was in denial and it was skin cancer and they don't have skin cancer in the Philippines so nobody really knew what it was and he kept going in for operations anyway it was so every morning at you know at 5:00 in the morning I was on the phone either to him or to his doctors and trying to sort things out and then I'd go on the set and have to do this comedy you know so you know that was that was emotionally challenging and and and actually then after Calendar Girls but I had to repress it because I had to carry on and do my job but after that I did a film called the pledge and with Robert Redford and I had just one breakdown scene at the end of that film and it was funny everything that I'd repressed doing calendar girls when I came to do that breakdown scene I did literally breakdown because um I I I'd held it in for so long and finally there was you know there was a moment which was rare tailor-made to have a cathartic moment if you like and it just all came out it was very disturbing naturally was it therapeutic or was it I think it was yes it was it was tough it was I think it was probably yeah and what's up next for you well uh I have a lovely really interesting film which I hope you're all going to see called eye in the sky that is coming and read about this coming so it's being released in March I think it's about drone warfare really good movie about drone warfare about all the issues involved in the political decisions and so relevant to you know what we're experiencing in warfare at the moment and and it's a really good movie really good movie and I'm going to do a film with Will Smith oh my god here's the bird yes what's that one is your love interest those days are past oh no no no not at all I won't I won't tell you the story because it's you know it's a good story it's called collateral Beauty Oh who's the director good question you know you're married to a good dresser I wasn't doing yes well I can't wait to see what you do next thank you so much for being here thank you guys

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 66,735

Rating: 4.8548894 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Conversations, Helen Mirren, The Queen (Film), The Last Station (Film), Gosford Park (Film), The Madness of King George (Film), Trumbo (Film), The Hundred-Foot Jouney (Film), Elizabeth I (Film), Calendar Girls (Film), Prime Suspect, Eye in the Sky (Film), Red (Film), Q&A, Interview, Career

Id: SDP7fxqkQDc

Length: 53min 48sec (3228 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2016