The Oscar-winning star Helen Mirren has been working in Hollywood for decades. This has given her quite a lot of experience working with a wide range of actors.
In a new interview, Mirren is speaking out to slam “older actors” who have become “grumpy” as they age.
Mirren Torches ‘Grumpy Older Actors’
Mirren, 79, recently portrayed Cara Dutton in the Yellowstone spinoff 1923 alongside Harrison Ford, 82. She’s also currently starring in the new Paramount+ series MobLand alongside Pierce Brosnan, 71. In a new interview, Mirren opened up about what surprised her when it came to working with these two legendary actors.
“I think with both of them, as I say, it’s the way they behave on set, professionally,” Mirren told Fox News.
“Harrison would sit around and chat with the cowboys,” she continued. “And it was cold, it wasn’t comfortable. He didn’t go off to his trailer and sit in a nice, warm, comfortable trailer. He would sit in the cold with everybody else. You know, chatting to the guys, for example.”
“And Pierce — Pierce just is so great,” Mirren added. “And you know what the other thing is great about them both? They both love what they do. And I’ve noticed, in my profession, a lot of older actors kind of get grumpy. Actresses don’t, but actors do.”
Mirren went on to elaborate on older “grumpy” actors.
“They get grumpy, and I think, what…do you have to be grumpy about? You’re working, you’ve been paid a lot of money, everyone’s looking after you,” she explained. Well, what do you got to be grumpy about? Harrison and Pierce are so not grumpy. They’re just — they love what they do. They’re positive about it. It’s what they do, and they love it.”
Mirren didn’t name any names when it came to who these “grumpy older actors” might be. However, given how long she’s been working in the industry, we can only imagine who they might be!
Related: Helen Mirren Reveals Why She Was ‘So Excited’ To Film Bedroom Scenes With Harrison Ford For ‘1923’
Mirren Gushes Over Ford And Brosnan
In this same interview, Mirren discussed how she built up a rapport with both Ford and Brosnan.
“You don’t develop chemistry. It’s there or it isn’t, you know,” she explained. “It just totally depends on what sort of person they are, what sort of person you are.”
“And they are two really, really great guys,” she gushed. “I think it also comes from respect, you know, professional respect and respect for the character of the other or maybe love for the character of the other person. And both Harrison and Pierce share a sort of commitment to their craft — professionalism, generosity on set. There’s no sort of, ‘Oh, I’m a big movie star’ thing going on at all. They’re both great guys.”
Mirren has worked with both Ford and Brosnan before. Indeed, she and Ford starred in the 1986 movie The Mosquito Coast. In a 2023 interview, Mirren admitted that working with him again all these years later has been a “very different” experience.
“The relationship was obviously very, very different then because Harrison was already an enormous movie star, and I was a theater actress out of London and nobody had heard of me,” she stated. “Now our relationship is very different because I’ve sort of caught up with him. Well, I’ll never catch up with him completely, but I’m a little bit closer than I was.”
Mirren can be humble all that she wants to, but she certainly has caught up with Ford. She’s been nominated for four Oscars in the decades since they worked together, winning for playing Queen Elizabeth in the 2006 movie The Queen.
Related: ‘Yellowstone’ Prequel ‘1923’ Releases Trailer For Its Second And Final Season
Mirren’s History With Brosnan
Meanwhile, Mirren and Brosnan appeared together in the 1980 movie The Long Good Friday. This was actually Brosnan’s film debut.
Mirren previously confessed that she never met Brosnan on the set of this film. She explained that “he played a very small role, nonspeaking role — important little role, but nonspeaking — and I was never in any scenes that he was in.”
Thankfully, they’ve since reunited in MobLand. Check out a trailer for that show below.
Mirren, Ford, and Brosnan are three of the most beloved Hollywood stars working today. It’s nice to know that behind the scenes, they seem to be just as down to earth as many of the characters that they’ve played onscreen!
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