​Helen Mirren: Acting royalty

Lee Cowan went to London for an audience with the Queen of movies:

Dame Helen Mirren may not always remember being recognized by royalty, but she's certainly recognized as royalty.

"I've been a Dame now for quite a long time, but I still kind of forget," she told Cowan - until, that is, someone addresses her as such. "And I go, 'Oh yes, that's right. I forgot that!'"

Mirren's portrayal of Elizabeth II in "The Queen" earned her a slew of awards, including an Oscar, for Best Actress.

But when it came time to actually meet Her Majesty in person, none of those accolades really mattered.

"I was paralyzed with fear and embarrassment and mortification," she laughed. "I got what we call 'Queenitis,' which is when you see the Queen, you just become this babbling idiot! You just say these ridiculous things!"

She didn't dare ask what the Queen thought of her portrayal. That's just not done. "To this day I don't know if she's ever seen it or what she thought of it, or anything."

Mirren still calls London Home. She lives here with her husband, director Taylor Hackford, and spends her time gardening when she's not on the road.

"Because we move around all the time, I'm forever planting things that I never see flower!" she laughed.

She's away from home again, this time to New York City, bringing Her Majesty to Broadway, in Peter Morgan's "The Audience."

"I think the great thing about this theater is it looks like Buckingham Palace," she told Cowan.

The play goes behind the doors of Buckingham Palace and into the private meetings between Queen Elizabeth and her Prime Ministers.

John Major: 'I only ever wanted to be ordinary."
Her Majesty: "Well, in which way do you consider you have failed in that ambition?"

Mirren has already won the Olivier Award for her sold-out run of the production in London's West End -- and can't wait to see how it plays to her favorite audience: Americans.

"American audiences sit forward, you know -- 'What are you going to do for us?'" she explained. "English audiences sit back - 'What are you going to do for us?'" It's a very different attitude!"

Over the course of her 63-year reign, Queen Elizabeth has held the private audiences with her Prime Ministers, once a week. They are purposely very private.

Cowan asked, "Do you feel just your portrayal of her has changed over the years?"

"No, I don't think so, because she hasn't changed," Mirren replied. "That's the point of the Queen, in a way, is this incredible consistency."

Her Majesty: "'What was her achievement?' the historians will ask. Well, she lived long, showed up, cut ribbons, knew when to keep her head down and her mouth shut. A postage stamp with a pulse, ha ha!"

It's not the first Queen Elizabeth Mirren has played. As "Elizabeth I" (in the 2005 TV miniseries), Mirren slipped in character in part by slipping into elaborate period costumes.

"The whole half of my trailer was full of jewelry in the morning, and I'd go, 'I think I'll wear that, that, that, and that. And let's put those on, let's put that in the hair,'" she said. "You could just load yourself up like a Christmas tree!"

Maybe it was her aristocratic roots. Her grandfather was a czarist officer, stranded in England after the Russian Revolution.

She was born lyena Mironov, and grew up in Essex, raised by a butcher's daughter and a taxi driver. She took an early interest in acting, especially Shakespeare.

Cowan asked, "What was it about Shakespeare in particular that really grabbed you?"

"Oh gosh, where do you start with that?"

"The language?"

"No, not actually the language -- the thought," Mirren replied. "The thought that the language is carrying. The understandings about life that are so amazing."

Her interest in the stage concerned her parents at first. But after a stunning performance as -- what else? -- a queen, in "Cleopatra," she was invited to join the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.

"It was like riding a big, powerful horse," she said, of playing Margaret in "Henry VI." "All the other times I've been on that Shakespeare horse, it was like, 'Oh my God, you know, I can't do this.' And suddenly, I could control the horse."

Since then, she's gone on to play all manner of strong women.

She went from ruling subjects to serving them in "Gosford Park." And in the action franchise "Red," Mirren wields a different kind of authority.

And she won rave reviews for her portrayal of an alcoholic detective in the British TV series, "Prime Suspect."

Often, her roles are heavy on intellect as well as sex appeal. Early on, Mirren got a reputation as "The thinking man's sex symbol" -- a title that she's never quite been able to shake.

Cowan asked, "Did you ever get sick of people talking about it?"

"Of course I got sick of it," she said. "It's annoying, yes, absolutely. And here you are asking me about it yet again. Every time. It's inevitable!"

In the '60s and '70s, she says, sexism came with the territory: "It took women quite a long time, I think, to fight their way out of that and learn the wonderful words, 'F*** off!'"

"Do you think you learned those early enough?" Cowan asked.

"No, I didn't learn them early enough. No, I didn't."

She certainly could hold her own, though. When an early interviewer suggested she was more seductress than serious actress, Mirren was quick to put him in his place:

Michael Parkinson: "Do you find that what can best be described as your equipment hinders you in that pursuit?"
Mirren: "I'd like for you to explain what you mean by my equipment. In detail."
Parkinson: "I mean your physical attributes."
Mirren: "You mean my fingers?"

"I was impressed with myself," she said. "I thought, Wow, you know, you're quite funny, you didn't lose your temper. And you handled it quite well actually. I was surprised."

She was just 30 then; she'll be 70 this July.

The Academy Award-winner has been around long enough to know that the red carpet treatment doesn't always last in Hollywood, which is why she still savors her moment.

"You're on this fantastic merry-go-round," she said. "There's all color and lights and people looking at you -- and then you're through, and off at the end. And you're back in the mud on your hands and feet thinking, 'What happened to me?'"

So far, however, what's happened to Helen Mirren has been royally grand. She hopes her crowning achievement is still to come.

"The fun is to learn," she said. "To just keep that learning process going."

"And it still is for you?"

"Yeah, of course, absolutely. Absolutely."

For more info:

• "The Audience" at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, New York City | Purchase tickets