Helen Mirren names the coolest actors in Hollywood: “I am a very easy fan”
Helen Mirren is one cool lady. She might be best known for playing a string of old posh ladies, but she’s proven herself willing to take on numerous challenges and stray out of her comfort zone.
Fans of the ‘Fast and Furious’ series will know her as the cockney criminal Magdalene ‘Queenie’ Shaw, the mother of Jason Statham and Luke Evans’ characters. If you thought that was weird, you should see some of the stuff she got up to in her youth. Caligula… that’s all I’m saying.
Across her 60+ years in the industry, Mirren has rubbed shoulders with the great and the good of the entertainment world. She’s been married to Taylor Hackford, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind An Officer and a Gentleman and Ray, since 1997, and was previously in a long-term relationship with Liam Neeson. She thinks she might be related to her 1923 co-star Harrison Ford, who would be an amazing relative, but not even ‘Cousin Harry’ can match up to this smooth customer in her eyes.
In an interview with Eye for Film, Mirren was asked about Samuel L Jackson’s recent comments that she was the ‘coolest woman in the business’. When asked who she thought the coolest actor was, she took an opportunity to bounce the compliment straight back.
“I would have to say Samuel L Jackson because actually he is,” she said, before listing off a number of other names. “Johnny Depp is rather cool too, and so is Ryan Gosling. I have just worked with a wonderful actor called Ryan Reynolds, and he was pretty cool too. Manish [Dayal] is very cool. Actors can get a very bad rap, but 98 per cent of the ones I have worked with have been just great guys – easy, funny, humble and good people. I am a very easy fan of many actors.”
Jackson made the comments in relation to the film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, in which Mirren starred in 1989. He admitted to watching the movie several times a year (mostly for the sex scenes), before exclaiming, “I’ll watch anything with Helen Mirren in it, especially when she was young. I mean, come on!” (via Digital Spy). Incredibly, given how prolific and acclaimed both performers are, Mirren and Jackson have never worked together. You’d have thought that, given their mutual admiration, they’d have tried to make that happen. Although, maybe each star was too afraid for their own respective marriage to make the first move.
Mirren has shared the screen with some of her other faves, however. As she explained, she had “just worked” with Ryan Reynolds on a film called Woman in Gold. Manish Dayal starred opposite her in The Hundred-Foot Journey, a comedy-drama penned by Peaky Blinders creator (and soon-to-be ‘James Bond’ writer) Steven Knight. She’s never appeared on screen with either Depp or Gosling, but did narrate Barbie, in which the latter blew everyone away with his performance as the one and only Ken.
Maybe one day Mirren and Jackson will get to work together, ending a years-long unrequited fascination on both sides. Until, Jackson will just have to settle for his endless rewatches. No word on how many times a year Mirren feels the need to stick on Pulp Fiction.
