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British actress Helen Mirren is a firm favourite in the race for this year's top film awards which starts today with the Golden Globes, but she expects the "weird bubble" created by critical acclaim for her performance in The Queen to burst soon enough.
Although the 61-year-old has left it late to make a splash in the United States, two successful television roles followed by her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II have put her on the map in Hollywood and New York.
She is on the best actress shortlist for a Golden Globe, and has just added a Bafta - Britain's top film award - to her list of nominations.
Later this month she will learn if she is in the running for the greatest prize of all, the Oscar - it would be a major surprise if she was not. Indeed, Mirren is many people's favourite to lift the golden statue.
"I think here in America, because I had three pieces of work that were all incredibly successful and extremely well received ... suddenly people went 'Wow, where did this woman come from?' " Mirren says.
"People did have an awareness of me in America, but suddenly those three pieces of work bumped up my profile."
In addition to The Queen, Mirren won a best actress Emmy award in 2006 for television production Elizabeth I and has two Golden Globe nominations in the best actress in a mini-series category for Elizabeth I and as detective Jane Tennison in the latest Prime Suspect.
"I'll be perfectly happy when I drop off the map as well," she said, adding that she was keen to return to the theatre stage in 2007. "Win or lose, the bubble bursts and you're back to the nitty-gritty of working.
"I'm honestly at my happiest in a cold rehearsal room with my polystyrene cup of tea."
Mirren's role in The Queen is distinctly unglamorous, as she plays a woman significantly older than her and adopts the queen's clipped pronunciation, not to mention her tight silver curls.
The actress watched hundreds of hours of tapes, read books and worked with a voice coach to get the part right. She portrays a monarch struggling to understand her people's grief over the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997.
Initially her character bridles at suggestions by Prime Minister Tony Blair that she needs to drop her guard, and must fight to keep the royal family together at a time of crisis.
Directed by Stephen Frears, The Queen won 10 Bafta nominations, one ahead of James Bond film Casino Royale.
Explaining the success of The Queen, Mirren said: "We are all flawed and ambitious and foolish and spoiled; at least one can recognise the human side in everyone.
"There are also the red velvet curtains, and peeking in through the windows of the palace."
What: Golden Globes
When & where: Sky Movies 1 from 2pm, today; Prime TV,9.30pm
Also: The Queen is screening now at cinemas
- REUTERS
