Helen Mirren Is Quite the Dame

There's a first time for everything, even for longtime, Oscar-winning actresses -- such as working with their husbands.

Dame Helen Mirren had one in making her upcoming film, "Love Ranch," which based on the real-life story of Sally Conforte, who opened the Mustang Ranch bordello in Nevada in 1971.

"Love Ranch" was directed by Mirren's husband, Taylor Hackford.

Though the two met on the set of "White Knights" in 1984, they had never worked together before.

"He's (Hackford) the guy responsible for "Ray" and all kind of great movies going back to 'Officer and a Gentleman,"' Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith remarked Wednesday. "You'd never worked with him before?"

Mirren explained that there had never been a project quite like this that appealed to both of them.

"I knew he had been looking for something for us to do together for quite some time," Mirren told Smith. "The right project came up, 'Love Ranch.' It has boxing, which Taylor loves, and a great role for me. When he said, 'I want you to play the madam of a brothel in the 1970s in Nevada, I gulped and said, 'That sounds great!"'

Though the "Love Ranch" includes a very intimate love scene between Mirren's character and a young boxer, Mirren said she had no problem with the fact that her husband was directing them from four feet away, behind a camera.

"You know, we shoot it this way, we're going to have this shot here, and we're going to see this, not going to see that. So actually, you approach it quite practically," explained Mirren. "In my quite extensive experience of doing love scenes and nudity on camera, it's usually more difficult for the guy than it is for the gal."

But when it comes to other direction, such as her American accent, Mirren said her husband was just the person to push her.

"We couldn't afford a coach, because it was quite a low-budget movie. So, I had my husband basically as my coach. His way of coaching me was saying, 'No, that sounds terrible. No, that's no good,"' said Mirren. "But he was very good, because he really sort of pushed me to work at it."

You can catch Mirren's new film out in theaters on June 30.