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PORTRAIT:LARSEN & TALBERT/ICON INTERNATIONAL; TYPOGRAPHY: DARREN BOOTH<br />
The mystique of the movie star is waning. Tabloids<br />
routinely publish snapshots of actors—un-coiffed and<br />
unaware—in their weekend sweats, sniffing produce or<br />
clutching an armful of dry cleaning. Anyone with internet<br />
access can instantly tap into a star’s Twitter feed, becoming<br />
privy to the kinds of banal minutiae previously considered<br />
the stuff of everyday Joes and Janes. Every day, celebrities<br />
are losing mythical ground, and there are precious few<br />
Hollywood actresses that can command a room—and a<br />
screen—with the kind of unflappable dignity that has made<br />
Helen Mirren into something of an anomaly.<br />
A Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire since 2003 and a veteran of England’s famed Royal<br />
Shakespeare Company (which she joined in 1966, at just 21 years old), Mirren, now 65, is a self-contained presence,<br />
fearless and fantastically enigmatic. Born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov in Chiswick, West London, Mirren has a<br />
resume so packed with prestigious appointments and awards (including a Best Actress Oscar for 2006’s The Queen<br />
and nominations for The Last Station, Gosford Park and The Madness of King George) that it’s hard to imagine her<br />
engaged in a mundane task of any kind.<br />
So it comes as a bit of a relief when the august actress readily—eagerly, almost—admits to something<br />
COVER STORY<br />
OCTOBER <strong>2010</strong> GO MAGAZINE<br />
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