Mirren is elevated to queen on screen



She plays the 16th-century queen in the two-part miniseries on HBO.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Helen Mirren is a little conflicted about being a dame.
"My street cred is gone," laments the actress, best known as Detective Jane Tennison in the gritty PBS crime series "Prime Suspect."
The feminine equivalent of knighthood was bestowed on her by order of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, conjuring up images of "female impersonators" or "something from 'Guys and Dolls,"' laughs Mirren.
Professionally, however, Mirren's royal status has advanced far beyond the damehood level.
She plays the 16th-century queen in the two-part miniseries "Elizabeth I," premiering on HBO Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT. Later this year, she'll be seen as the current Elizabeth II in the feature film "The Queen," which takes place in the days following Princess Diana's death.
"They both came to the throne at 25. They both shared this absolute, total, disciplined, dedicated sense of duty to their role as monarch," Mirren said, as she talked over a cup of tea at a local hotel.
Similarities end
But that's where the royal similarities probably end.
Through research, Mirren discovered the mercurial Elizabeth I was "an incredibly passionate woman, a woman who could be so angry that she literally fainted with anger, and at the same time could laugh so hard, especially at vulgar comedy, that she fell off her chair ... She out-Cleo'd Cleopatra."
Elizabeth II tends to be more refined, of course.
Numerous actresses, including Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett, have played Elizabeth I. Mirren says her favorite is Miranda Richardson's parody in "Black Adder."
"Elizabeth I" focuses on the virgin queen's two romantic passions -- her heartfelt love for the Earl of Leicester (played by Jeremy Irons) and her tragic dalliance with the much younger Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy).
Love scene
At an earlier news conference, Mirren, 60, had joked with Dancy about how "mortified" she felt in a love scene "when we were romping around on the cushions and you were pretending to be excited about it, with a terrible old woman underneath you."
Glancing over at the sleek and sophisticated Mirren -- with her blonde bobbed hair and striking figure -- Dancy had no problem sounding sincere when he said, "I didn't think of it that way!"
Scripted by Nigel Williams, the miniseries uses many of the intellectual monarch's own words. England's Palace of Whitehall was re-created in Lithuania inside a Soviet-era concrete gymnasium.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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