In the Frame

by Helen Mirren

This does not mean that there were not difficult times. Often I wanted to give up and go back to where I was wanted. Work-wise, I could not get started. When I arrived, films were being made almost exclusively for the young teenage market, an audience that Hollywood had ignored for a while and recently rediscovered. There are never that many roles for women, and whatever roles I could have played inevitably went to actresses with a bigger Hollywood profile than me. I was at the back of the line, just like that time in primary school, except this time I couldn’t even get the ‘one of the twenty-four blackbirds’ role.

  At this point, Taylor did a memorable thing. I had gone to meet him for lunch at the Raleigh studios, where he was working. Crying, I started trying to explain all my difficulties. There was a path by the side of the studio that reached far into the distance. He took me to the beginning of this path, took two steps, and said ‘Don’t worry. Look, we are only this far along in our life together, we have all that way to go. Some will be hard and some will be easy, but we will make it.’

  I think this was the moment I finally absolutely fell in love with him.

  A few years later I was asked to do a play in LA, A Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourn. I had been asked to do other plays in America but had had to turn them down because I did not have the right visa (this was before I got my Green Card). This time, however, I could do the play because it was in an ‘Equity Waiver’ theatre with fewer than two hundred seats. I think the pay was two hundred dollars a week, but it was so good to have a job to go off to in the mornings. It’s also a wonderful play.

  One Wednesday morning as I went off to work, I heard on the television that the verdict in the trial of the police officers involved in the Rodney King beating was to be announced. When news of the acquittal broke, the city exploded. We were advised to stop rehearsals and go home. There was a palpable feeling of danger in the city. I have never known anything like it. A sixth sense told you not to go out.

  I was on my own, as Taylor had gone to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. The next night from our house I could see in the distance fires breaking out in South Central. Every minute or so another fire would ignite in a billow of dark smoke. Taylor flew in that night, worried about me on my own in LA. I was so pleased to see him. We climbed the hill behind our house and watched as those fires moved inexorably towards the Hollywood Hills, closer and closer until they reached Hollywood Boulevard, just a few yards below our house. One of the last shops to be burned and looted was Frederick’s of Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard. When we could finally go out, a couple of days later, I drove by the store, one of my favourites in LA. It was completely empty. Every red frilly bustier, pink thong and fringed balcony bra was gone. I quite liked the idea of a terrifying South Central gangbanger running off with armloads of tarty women’s underwear.

  When Prime Suspect became a big hit in America, winning the coveted Emmy, my profile was raised a little. I was asked by Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick to appear in a piece about a lesbian relationship called Losing Chase. Again I won an Emmy. This led to some of my work I like the best: The Passion of Ayn Rand and The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, both of which were nominated, with Ayn Rand again winning me an Emmy. Sadly, none of these pieces has been shown in Britain.

  In LA I experienced riots and earthquakes, fires and floods, in the way of that naturally dramatic city. Taylor and I were never Beverly Hills types; in fact I went for years without ever going to Rodeo Drive, or the beach, or anywhere west of La Cienega. We lived in old Hollywood, which at that time was the haunt of drug addicts and hookers. If we went out to dinner it would be in East Los Angeles, Mexican food being Taylor’s favourite cuisine.

  With the help of Alex and Rio, we grew to understand how to live together, and eventually to work parallel to each other, but we still did not get married for many years – fourteen, to be exact. Marriage was simply not a necessity for us. I had achieved the aim, impressed upon me by my mother, of being economically independent. I always kept my own home in London, and as the years went on most of my work was in Britain, while Taylor’s was in America. Taylor always gave me the same freedom to work as I did him, and that of course is one of the many reasons we are still together.

  Taylor can be turbulent, irrational and explosive. He has made me cry on many occasions. Coming from a family where voices were not often raised, the conflicts sometimes were unbearable. I am non-confrontational, a scaredy cat where that is concerned. Taylor has no fear of confrontation, which makes me cringe in British embarrassment.

  He is also the most unsexist man, looking women directly in the eye with no curtain of assumptions or prejudices to cloud his view. He is brave, loyal and supportive. He is the man to turn to in an emergency, and he has been a wonderful mentor to many people. He is neither jealous of success nor impressed by it, although he enjoys and celebrates it. He is understanding of and sympathetic to failure. He also tried to teach me, not altogether successfully, not to be afraid of the phone.

  In the end, and with our two families becoming very close, there was no longer any reason for us not to be married. And anyway the estate laws of both our countries preferred us to be married. So we decided to do it – and set a date a mere six weeks away. Then I sat back and my director husband-to-be took over.

  A few years earlier we had enjoyed a wonderful Hogmanay in Scotland with Alex and Rio, who had been introduced to the delights of single malt whisky and Scottish reels. Taylor has Scottish roots, being a McAllister on his mother’s side. Also his birthday is on 31st December. So we came up with the idea of celebrating the New Year, his birthday and our marriage all in one day.

  We found a castle for rent: Castle Stuart, a medieval structure with fairy-tale turrets. The Stuart family, who run it, were the very best of hosts. With sixteen of our closest friends and family we spent the most fabulous four days leading up to the wedding in those magical surroundings.

  The wedding took place in a small and simple church in Ardersier, a little fishing village near Inverness. As I arrived, kindly driven by Charles Stuart in his old Bentley, there was a crowd of people from the village outside the church. They had heard about the wedding, probably through the florist, who lived in the village. I invited them all to come in if they wanted. As I walked down the aisle, I could hear the crowd quietly coming in behind me. Alex White, the vicar, who was very shy but welcoming, waited until everyone was in and then announced, ‘We are here to witness the marriage of Helen to Taylor, but first I would like to tell you all that it is Taylor’s birthday today and I think we should all sing him “Happy Birthday”!’ Whereupon Taylor’s family, with the people of Ardersier, did just that.

  Later we saw in the New Year in the Scottish tradition by banging on saucepans outside, and dancing and drinking until the small wee hours.

  Here is a letter written to my mother when I first got to America and began my adventure with Taylor and his sons. I am glad to see that I do not mention that I was crying every day because I felt so out of place. To get my Green Card to work in the theatre in America, I had to show that I was a proper actress. It took a whole heap of letters like this one from Trevor Nunn.

  This is a page of my favourite pictures of my special, remarkable husband. He always wears red on the set as he likes the crew to be easily able to see him. He is also typically American and always on the phone. I must have a thousand pictures like these.

  Above left: Here we are coming back to the castle from the church. Natasha was my bridesmaid. We were piped back into the castle. The Stuarts made a beautiful wedding for us.

  Above right: The Times.

  My wedding jacket came from the 70 per cent off sale rail in a store in LA. The skirt came from somewhere else. My husband gave me the lovely baroque pearls.

  George, my ex, and Taylor’s best friend, Tony, look on as I show how very happy I am.

  Above: We all took the sleeper train from London to Scotland for the wedding, having to change trains at 5.30 a.m. The first train was late, so all of
us had to run down the platform in a panic. We only made it because the rail employees kindly held the second train for us. Middle: Here I am happily signing away my freedom, with the help of my beloved sister, and my stepson, Rio. And two cousins-in-law who are like brothers: Rio and Simon. Taylor made his sons wear kilts in honour of their Scottish ancestry. Rio managed to make it look very fashionable … He is wearing his Las Vegas dice belt. Below: Before the marriage, with my good Parsenn Sally friends, Sandy Campbell and Sarah Ponsonby.

  The spectacular castle and the simple little church that was the scene of my wedding.

  My family now consists of my husband, Taylor, the president of us all; my sister, the queen of us all; her son Simon, his wife Louise, and his children, Natasha, Cameron and Felix; my brother Peter’s son Basil; and Taylor’s sons, my stepsons, Alex and Rio. Lots of boys, and my very happiest moments are when I am together with all of them, which happens quite often. They all get on really well. Simon, my beloved surrogate son, is now a successful writer in Hollywood. Alex also works in Los Angeles, in the music and video game world, and Rio has become a music and bar entrepreneur, with successful bars in New Orleans and San Francisco. Basil works in the film business in the camera department and is a young director of photography. Natasha is still in school in Cannes, where she lives with her mother, and Cameron and Felix are on their way to becoming the LA boys that their grown-up step-cousins are. We are an international family, with deep roots on both sides of the Atlantic. I am often asked where I consider to be home, and really I have no answer for that. I am first and foremost a London Girl, an Essex Girl even, but my home is wherever this motley clan of Scottish/English (Taylor), Scottish/Jewish (Alex and Rio), Russian/English (Kate and I), Irish/Russian/English (Basil), and Welsh/Russian/English (Simon), Jewish/English (Louise), Welsh/Jewish/Russian/English (Cameron and Felix), and Russian/English/Irish/French (Natasha), all of us with a bit of French thrown in as well, collect, and become as one.

  Far left: My nephew Simon’s eldest son, Cameron. Clockwise from top: my sister Kate; My favourite picture of all our boys together, only little Felix is missing, not yet born. It was taken in the kitchen of my house in London, Christmas 2004 – Simon, Alex, Basil and Rio with Cameron; Natasha as a little cutie, wearing my wedding skirt and lying across another very old member of my family, the leopard that James gave me as a birthday present many years ago; two photographs of little Felix; my nephew Simon and his wife Louise.

  Top: Taylor, me, Alex and Rio at the house in LA. Above right: Kate, cousin Tania and me.

  Above left: Taylor, Kate, Louise and Simon visiting me backstage.

  Clockwise from top: Cameron was very excited and pleased to have a brother and has miraculously stayed that way; my proud sister and her second grandchild whom I get to borrow; Taylor wants his own grandchildren but is happy to borrow as well; my favourite photo with Taylor, Alex and Rio; Simon with baby Natasha, both sleeping.

  Professional Shots

  I have always found it hard to go by an automatic photo booth without going in to take some silly pictures. I persuade whoever I am with to participate… It’s better with other people.

  Here I am then, with James Wedge, with Janet Suzman, on my own a few times, with James Mason, with Rio and Taylor. One of the reasons I love these booths is that they capture a tiny moment in time. The process takes seconds, the result instantaneous.

  I have been photographed many times since I was nineteen. In the course of my professional life I have been shot by some very famous photographers, some real artists, some iconoclastic photographers and by some simply very good professional photographers – and let’s not forget the terrible hacks, of which there have also been a few. The hacks always call you ‘dear’, which makes me want to head-butt them. I have been photographed for magazines, newspapers, and press releases. Ultimately, it is a part of my work. It comes under the heading of publicity, and no matter what work you do, whether it is in a small theatre seating two hundred or a film destined for an international release, or a television piece hopefully to be seen by millions, it is a part of your job to make the audience aware of the project. In other words, to get the bums on the seats. You do this by speaking to publications, and with the words go the pictures. I try to approach this side of my work with professionalism and understanding.

  This kind of photography is very controlled and time consuming. At one of the shoots shown here, I counted twenty people on the set – all to take one picture of me. Every single person except myself had at least one assistant. The photographer had five. They never used the picture. Of course it’s not always like that. That was an extreme example.

  Sometimes it presents a fantasy, sometimes it is a genuine attempt at portraiture, but it always takes a lot of time and energy. I have enjoyed working with photographers, and, since my relationship with James Wedge, I’ve given them the time and respect they need. Here is a small part of our work together.

  Opposite, top: James Wedge and I; right, Janet Suzman and I; on my own a few times.

  Above: with James Mason.

  Right: with Rio and Taylor.

  I have worked with Tony Snow don three times. He is an extraordinarily precise photographer, knowing exactly the image he wishes to capture. He is also great fun to be with.

  Taken by Lord Snow don in the 1970s.

  Below: I can’t remember who took this photograph but I do remember that I was running late and needed a bath…

  The picture opposite is the result of one of the many photo sessions I had to do through the release of ‘The Queen’. It was shot in New York, and the photographer graffitied parts of my thank you speech from the Oscars on the wall behind me. I love all the contrasts.

  This was the shoot that I counted at least twenty people on set to take just the one shot of me. It was never used.

  I loved this dress and set up this shoot myself to show it off in all its glory.

  A photograph by Julian Broad.

  Right: A shot taken by Rankin.

  I love the idea of extreme photography - trying something different and giving yourself over to the unique style of the photographer. The photographs on this page are the work of two of my favourite photographers. I like to give photographers complete freedom in their work. That way with inventive and creative photographers you get an arresting and sometimes revealing image.

  Acknowledgements

  I thank the collaboration of many friends: Sandy Campbell who goosed me into the project in the beginning and kept me going with her enthusiasm. The picture editor of the book, Chris Worwood, without whom this book would not exist. His patience, calm and organisation were invaluable. My family, who have tolerated me with good humour. Will Stewart for finding my family pictures in Russia. And finally all the friends from my life who helped by supplying pictures. I thank them for keeping the pictures in the first place: Kate Mirren, James Wedge, Mary Ellen Mark, Valentina Zimina, Sarah Ponsonby, Ken Cranham, George Galitzine, Jean Louis Alpeyrie, Jenni May.

  I also thank all the photographers I have worked with over the years. Each one is singular in their approach and constantly re-invents the art of photography.

  I thank Michael Dover for his expertise and wisdom. He is the midwife who brought this bawling child into the world of publishing. Also everyone at Orion and in particular Alan Samson for their patience and support.

  And I would like to thank the Queen… Sorry, force of habit!

  Film

  2005

  The Queen

  Shadowboxer

  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (voice)

  2004

  The Clearing

  Raising Helen

  Pride (voice)

  2002

  Calender Girls

  2001

  Gosford Park

  No Such Thing

  Last Orders

  The Pledge

  Greenfingers

  1999

  Teaching Miss Tingle

  The
Passion of Ayn Rand

  1998

  The Prince of Egypt (voice)

  1997

  Painted Lady

  Critical Care

  1996

  Some Mother’s Son

  Losing Chase

  1995

  The Snow Queen (voice)

  1994

  The Prince of Jutland

  The Madness of King George

  1993

  The Hawk

  1991

  Where Angels Fear to Tread

  1990

  The Comfort of Strangers

  Bethune: The Making of a Hero

  1989

  Red King, White Knight

  The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

  Pascalis Island

  1988

  When the Whales Came

  1987

  Cause Célèbre

  1986

  The Mosquito Coast

  1985

  Coming Through

  1985

  Gospel According to Vic