00:00I really love directing her, actually.
00:02You know, she's 80 years old now.
00:04She's seen everything.
00:07She's done everything.
00:08She's played every possible character.
00:09But we actually haven't seen her as audiences
00:12being that broken down and fragile.
00:15And, you know, she did say to me at the beginning,
00:18I don't really want to play this part,
00:19but I am going to do it for you
00:22because I want to support you
00:24and I think your son's script is wonderful.
00:26So she was very committed.
00:27But, you know, that's Helen.
00:28She is a mensch.
00:30She's like the backbone of Britain.
00:31You know, this woman is just, she's just extraordinary.
00:34And actually what she comes with innately as a person
00:38is that sense of being a backbone for this family,
00:44for this family of people who are all falling apart.
00:47So I never felt any degree of trepidation
00:52around being able to get that out of her
00:55because she already possesses it.
00:56And so really my job
00:58as the person directing this brilliant woman
01:00was to give her the space
01:02to just be,
01:05to just play and try things and experiment
01:08and discover the performance as well.
01:11Strangely, Helen actually,
01:13she didn't, she didn't,
01:14she didn't feel the need to over-talk.
01:17She didn't want to talk about anything too much,
01:20which I totally understood.
01:21She just wanted to get there and react
01:24and just respond to what was right in front of her.
01:26Whereas some of the other actors had a different process
01:29and were much more detailed in terms of conversation
01:31and so on,
01:31which I myself as an actress,
01:33I'm also like that.
01:34So,
01:34so I could adapt to both.
01:36But what I did do for Helen Mirren
01:39was I provided her
01:40with a slightly different working environment
01:45to anything that she's had before.
01:47Because I knew I wouldn't be able to offer her anything new
01:49and it would have been foolish to try.
01:52I'm not going to say something to her
01:53that she's never heard before.
01:54She's heard everything.
01:55And also I myself know as an actress,
01:57if a director comes along
01:58and they think they're going to try something clever with you,
02:00you smell it out and you shut down
02:02and you are like,
02:03okay,
02:04not helpful,
02:04you know?
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