Mirren first fell in love with acting as a child.
After joining the British Royal Shakespeare Company in London, she proved herself to be a formidable stage actress.
Since then, she has appeared in over 130 films and TV shows of all genres and styles.
It’s no wonder she is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of her generation.
“I grew up in postwar Britain,” she toldThe Hollywood Reporter.
So I remember rationing."
Her mother was from an old English family of tradespeople.
“My mum left school at 14, but my dad had an education,” she explained.
“So intellectually, it was a very vibrant household.”
Her parents, however, weren’t exactly on board with her having a career in the arts.
By the time Mirren was a tween, though, she’d started to catch the acting bug.
As a teenager, she went to see her first Shakespeare play.
Even though it was just a local production of “Hamlet,” Mirren found herself hooked.
“It wasn’t the language: it was the story,” she explained toRadio Times.
She continued, saying, “Hamlet is an incredible thriller on that level.”
Later that night, Mirren found a book of Shakespeare plays in her home and started reading.
“I went through it looking for characters I responded to,” she recalled toHarper’s Bazaar.
“That was what led me into wanting to become an actress.”
“She opened my heart to poetry.”
Welding encouraged Mirren to audition for the National Youth Theater.
She was just 20 years old at the time (viaYou).
This role then led to an audition for the revered Royal Shakespeare Company.
“I still don’t know how I did the auditions,” she told Radio Times.
Oh, God."
“All I wanted was to be a classical stage actress,” she remembered.
“I would stand in the wings to watch the others Judi Dench!
As Mirren later told theDaily Mail, she felt vilified for sticking up for herself.
You couldn’t win,” she said.
“I grew up in the Sixties.
It was all supposed to be about sexual liberation, but that was all a complete con.
The men still called the shots.”
Even though Mirren eventually shed this image, being a young woman in the industry clearly wasn’t easy.
“In the 1970s, British film was kind of nasty,” she confessed.
“It wasn’t very good.
It was said and it was true that British film was alive and living on television.”
“That was sort of my training for working on film,” she said.
The show followed an austere policewoman who battles sexism in the police force in Britain.
At first, Mirren thought she might be out of her depth with the character.
Lynda La Plante, the show’s writer gave her some advice: Don’t smile.
“As women if we want someone to do something, we smile,” she explained.
“We smile to negotiate our way through life, to make everyone feel good about themselves.
Jane doesn’t smile, not until she’s achieved her goal.”
When the pair met, Hackford was already married.
As Mirren put it in her autobiography, “My fate was sealed” (viaEverything Zoomer).
It took me a very long time to come round to acquiring the taste.
I just had to meet the right turnip."
In fact, despite her glittering career, her husband remains her proudest achievement.
“I feel particularly grateful that I’m in a happy marriage,” she toldThe Guardianin 2015.
“I love my husband, I love being with him.
When the series was released, her performance of the indomitable queen was met withoutstandingreviews.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association agreed.
Mirren went on to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.
For Mirren, playing Elizabeth I was a hugely important experience, even years later.
The film follows the queen during the fallout of Princess Diana’s death.
“But I got the sense that it had been seen and that it had been appreciated.”
After playing both Elizabeths, Mirren firmly established herself as one oftheBritish actors of her generation.
The role became personally significant to Mirren, who has talkedmanytimesabout her love of the queen.
We mourn a woman, who, with or without the crown, was the epitome of nobility.”
And I was shameless: ‘Oh God, I’d just love to be in one of your movies!
hey let me be in it,'" she recalled toThe Hollywood Reporter.
Transitioning into the world of action movies gave Mirren the chance to experience a slightly different filmmaking process.
And, as it turned out, she was hooked.
“I love the special effects world.
And the stunt world,” she gushed.
“I really believe stuntpeople should be nominated for Oscars.”
I don’t look so good, but I don’t care."
As she’s aged, she’s embraced smiling much more.
“I always had fat cheeks (and I still do!
), so I was always sucking my cheeks in,” she confessed toVogue.
“But you’re free to’t suck your cheeks in and smile at the same time!
It’s absolutely impossible.
So I guess I never smiled.”
“I have a sister who’s a very important part of my female world,” she said.
And then of course, for me to be inspired by women.
… A community of women is very important; only we really understand what we go through."
For Mirren, the sudden lockdown was something of a welcome relief.
Normally we’re getting on planes, going here, there.
So it’s been fabulous just to be a normal person."
This doesn’t mean Mirren has set acting aside, though.
In fact, she’s showcasing her ranching prowess on the small screen beginning December 18, 2022.
