Helen Mirren is sharing a shocking confession.
The “Thursday Murder Club” star, 80, revealed that even after six decades in Hollywood, she still gets “absolutely terrified” when she starts on a new project.
“I think it’s because every project that you go into is an unknown,” Mirren admitted to People.
“And each time you enter into a new project, you never know how it’s going to be or how the people are going to be and whether the chemistry will be good or a disaster. So stepping into a project is nerve-racking,” she continued.
Over the years, Mirren has racked up a long list of roles and taken home an Oscar, a Tony Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and multiple BAFTAs and Golden Globe awards.
“Every single one is completely different and has a different energy and a different requirement, you never know if you’re going to sort of step up or not,” the “Red” alum mused.
Mirren said she follows the motto “fake it til you make it.”
“A lot of it is pretense, of course, sort of acting,” she detailed. “You feel insecure, but you pretend you don’t. And we all do it, don’t we?”
“Walking into a party or walking into a job interview or whatever it is you’re having to deal with. We all have sort of gird our loins for want of a better word.”
On the flip side, having a sense of fear has kept Mirren interested in the work she does.
“I think it’s that very thing that I’m talking about is the unknown. And that is the thing that sort of galvanizes you and drives you forward is the fear and the excitement of that,” she said.
One role in particular comes to mind for Mirren: playing Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 drama “The Queen.”
“Now of course it’s been done over and over and over again, but it hadn’t really been done before. Not like that,” explained Mirren. “And that was very unknown territory at the time. And as you are probably aware, the British have a very extraordinary — and not exactly ambivalent — but a very profound emotional relationship with their monarchy and especially with the Queen because she was there for such a long time.”
The star called the late Queen, who died in 2022 at the age of 96, an “incredible icon.”
“Generations of people, including my generation, had been born and lived through her. So taking her, doing that, what was, we had no idea how that was going to be received.”
These days, Mirren is taking over the small screen in Netflix’s “Thursday Murder Club,” which debuts on Friday, Aug. 29.
She stars alongside Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie and Ben Kingsley as a group of retirees who spend their time solving cold case murders for fun.
Mirren was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s with Kingsley, 81, and worked with Brosnan, 72, in “Mob Land.” They were also both in the 1980 film “The Long Good Friday.”
In 2003, Mirren and Imrie, 73, costarred in “Calendar Girls.”
“There was a sense of, gosh, guys, isn’t this amazing? Here we all are again,” Mirren gushed. “There’s nothing particularly surprising about the fact that we’re all still working, but there was a great recognition of the fact that all of us have had long varied careers.”
The British icon’s latest role comes on the heels of her controversial comments in May.
While sitting down for the Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress Roundtable, Mirren spoke with Kathy Bates, Niecy Nash-Betts, Parker Posey, Keri Russell and Cristin Milioti about the ups and downs of the entertainment industry.
During the chat, Mirren shockingly quipped, “Looking at our faces around this table, none of us are beautiful.”
“Oh, get out of town!” Bates, 77, fired back. “I feel more beautiful than I have in my entire life.”
Mirren, however, doubled down.
“We’re not. None of us are beauties,” she pressed. “We all have really different faces, very interesting faces.”
Russell, 49, came to the English actress’s defense, explaining, “I know what you mean. Like model beautiful?”
Mirren stood her ground, noting, “We all know what ‘beautiful’ is like.”
