Quote

English actors feel vaguely apologetic for being there at all. American actors know that the most important thing is to get one take out of fifty that is great, and they'll go to any length to get it. The English are used to working within consistently small, low-budget things and think, I mustn't waste their time.

Helen Mirren

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Helen Mirren
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 26
Actor
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Hammersmith
London
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren
Thinking
Feel
Waste
Mustn
Feels
Small
Consistently
Important
Within
Budget
Great
Working
Budgets
Thing
American
Length
Things
Actors
Fifty
Time
Used
Lows
Apologetic
Think
Take
English
Vaguely

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I love that country [Israel].
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I think it's always hard for people to get their head around the fact that populist, commercial films can also actually be great works of art.
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I'm not beautiful I clean up nice.
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I have done film, television and theatre - all at a pretty substantial level - I don't think it's possible for American actors to do that.
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There isn't a King Lear for women, or a Henry V, or a Richard III. You reach a level where you can handle that stuff technically and mentally, and it's not there.
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I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is more scathing, more cruel, as illustrated by Monty Python and Little Britain.
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As an actor, those are the roles that you long for. You always want something that's going to kick your last role out of the water and put you off on a new path.
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The most difficult thing about shooting guns instantly on film is to not pull a silly face while the gun is going off, because it's always a bit of a shock. So you find yourself sticking your tongue out or blinking or whatever. So the hardest thing is to keep a straight face while you're shooting a gun.
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The control and understanding of our personal fears is one of the most important undertakings of our lives.
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Love is a command to rise to one's highest potential, the best and noblest vision of ourselves. Love is a reward, the greatest we can earn, granted to us for the moral qualities we have achieved in our lives.
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I think a lot of my work has been a weird attempt to liberate myself, but it's not altogether successful.
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When you're 16, you think 28 is so old! And then you get to 28 and it's fabulous. You think, then, what about 42? Ugh! And then 42 is great. As you reach each age, you gain the understanding you need to deal with it and enjoy it.
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It's great to be queen!
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Any role that's proactive is a great role, and action roles are by their very nature proactive. You get to do stuff. I hate sitting in a corner - I'd much prefer an action role in a popcorn movie rather than pining in a corner not doing anything.
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My grandfather had come over as a member of the czarist army, to make an arms deal with the British government. Being a blinkered military man, he was unaware that the Russian Revolution was about to take place.
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Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That's the fun of them. You're always learning.
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I hate people eating on film. I hate it even worse on the radio, when people eat on the radio. I just can't stand it.
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I loathe, I hate, chick flicks.
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I do think it's well over-time to have a female Doctor Who. I think a gay, black female Doctor Who would be the best of all.
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I'm not a communist, of course. But I do think that everything is down to economics. Capitalism doesn't change.
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