10 Questions for Helen Mirren

(2 of 2)

Online only—extra questions:

Related

Video

10 Questions for Helen Mirren

Audio

Get the audio on-the-go

Download | Subscribe

Photos

Helen Mirren: On Stage and on Screen

More 10 Questions

• Ask Your Questions: NPR's Garrison Keillor

• 10 Questions for Al Roker

• 10 Questions for Zac Efron

• 10 Questions for Tony Hawk

More 10 Questions

While there are many actresses and actors who remain very attractive for their age, you have managed to stay not only attractive but very sexually alluring without the quantifier of "for her age" being needed. Do you believe this is due to your attitude towards life and sexuality or some other factors? —Samuel Hawk, Olympia, Wash.
I don't think most women do lose their so-called sex appeal. It just shifts into a different arena, you know. It's more to do with life, and appreciation of life, and I think it's [that] their perception has shifted in some way. But there's no question, you know; full on sex appeal is for the young—it is. That's nature. And so it should be. But older men and older women, when they say sex appeal I don't think they really mean sex. I think they're talking about something else. I think they're talking about some indefinable thing that has to do with appreciation of life, wisdom, and all kinds of things. There should be a special word for it. I don't think sex is quite the right word actually.

[If you were an American voter] would you support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton? —Mustafa Yildirim, Adiyaman, Turkey
I find American politics quite hard to comprehend exactly how they work. Most Americans do, especially with this whole Florida and redo and all the rest of it—so complicated. I just about got my head around it. And also it's quite hard for Europeans to really understand the power of the President. The president has so much power, much more power than our prime minister does, for example. I would love to vote for all of them, quite honestly, or not vote for any of them. I'm quite cynical in general about politicians. Politicians always come in on a wave of hope and then of course it all goes terribly wrong every single time. Obviously I would love to see a female President in America, but I would also love to see a charismatic black President. And then of course, you know, there are many other people; I though John Edwards was a wonderful candidate. So it's difficult, really. Would I vote for Hillary? I don't know whether I would or not right now. I don't know. All you want of your politicians is a kind of honesty, and I know that's the one thing they can't deliver, actually. I've met Hillary Clinton, you know, and she was incredibly impressive and charming. I think she probably would make a great president, or a great vice-president, or a great adviser to the president.

Which director(s) did you learn the most from and why? —Stephaan Harris in Washington, DC
The truth is you learn a different thing from all of them. They all have something to offer and every film by its nature—different actors, the different photographers, different writing, the different atmosphere of the film—you learn something from all of them. I think the best bit of advice I was ever given about film acting came from an American actor and producer and director called Bob Balaban. He said, You don't know where the arrow of your performance is going to land. You have no idea. And I had found that out to be true. You know when you intensely, intensely try and emotionally express the pain of loss [or] whatever you're trying to do, and what's on the screen is something completely different. Not what you intended at all. It may be interesting, often, but something completely different. Where that comes from—'I didn't do that, I was doing that and that came out—can drive you crazy as an actor. So he said just let the arrow land where it will, [act] as instinctively and as truthfully as possible, but then let it go wherever it goes and don't torture yourself when you go home at night. And that was great advice and I've absolutely followed that. It kind of liberated me.

Do you really prefer tea over coffee? —Nimna De Silva, Colombo, Sri Lanka
PG Tips [tea]. All Brits drink PG Tips.