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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
Great
Working
Budgets
Thing
American
Length
Things
Actors
Fifty
Time
Used
Lows
Apologetic
Think
Take
English
Vaguely
Thinking
Feel
Waste
Mustn
Feels
Small
Consistently
Important
Within
Budget

More quotes by Helen Mirren

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I met with Hitchcock when I was a very, very young actress just starting out and he was making 'Frenzy' in London and I was sent along to meet with him. He was very, very unimpressed with me and I have to say, I was rather unimpressed with him - but only because I was an arrogant, ignorant young actress.
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I always love working with young actors, because there's always something to learn. It's always exciting to see the next generation and how they approach things and what's great about them and what's not so great about them.
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I don't mind being sexy, but on my terms. To this day, I love sexuality. I love the art of sexuality. I love Lady Gaga and the performance of sexuality. The mysterious, the artistic and the slightly perverse. I'm interested in all that.
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Like journalists. The police have an extremely sick sense of humor, very guarded, very private, very male, which they need to survive on an everyday level. I don't think anyone has ever managed to tap that on the screen - it would actually be too shocking.
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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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Women have got to stop being polite. If I ever had children, which I don't, the first thing I'd teach a girl of mine is the words 'f - off.'
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I don't see that anybody needs to earn $12 million for three months' work, quite honestly.
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I love photography and I love the art of photography. So when I'm working with high-level art photographers, I give them artistic freedom because I want that for myself when it's my turn to do my work and I never try and control it or say I'll only do this or I want it like that.
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As you get older naked stuff [on film] gets easier. It's more to do with the role than what men in the audience think. There's a liberation about it.
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It's great to be queen!
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I don't like the word 'strong,' because a strong character is never an interesting character. A character is made interesting by their vulnerabilities and their weaknesses.
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I have never in my life found myself in a situation where I've stopped work and said, 'Thank God it's Friday.' But weekends are special even if your schedule is all over the place. Something tells you the weekend has arrived and you can indulge yourself a bit.
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Acting is acting, but acting is different in almost always every project, and very, very different in this context.
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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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Patience can be a good thing - but not necessarily. Sometimes it's not so bad to be impatient. I'm a little bit too polite.
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I am not too keen on my nose, I don't like my knees, I hate my ankles, I am unsure about my behind, I don't like my legs at all. I am not too sure about my chin, my forehead is a bit dodgy. But, overall, I can live with it.
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I still have a Gypsy sense of adventure. I don't think I have slept in the same bed for more than three or four months my whole life. I am always planting vegetables that I never get to eat and flowers that I never see flower. I have always moved around the world.
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I knew I wanted to engage in the world of the imagination, but it was not economically feasible for me to study acting, so I went to a teachers' training college.
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People become more interesting from about 25 - they develop character and their personalities come out.
Helen Mirren
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It's very easy to just shout: 'Off with their heads!' Maybe in doing that you might lose something very valuable. I would like to see the monarchy continue, but in a more democratic fashion.
Helen Mirren