HELEN MIRREN PAINTS PORTRAIT OF THE QUEEN

(VIDEO) Helen Mirren talks about she portrayed the iconic monarch Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen without impersonating her.

In The Queen Elizabeth II receives news that Princess Diana has died and her reaction to the death of the mother of her grandchildren did not suit the British well as they held the People’s Princess in great personal regard. Oscar winner Helen Mirren who stars as the Queen was a bit nervous to portray the iconic monarch but found a way to relax her way around the role.

Between takes Helen would revisit the Queen in her trailer with constant reminders of who she was and what she stood for.

“It came upon me that you have to actually think of yourself as a portrait painter. You’re doing a portrait of the Queen, so that kind of relaxed me about it. But then having said that obviously you have to get certain things right, the hair, the stance, the hands, the walk, the voice; all of those things. You can’t fall down. You’ve got to try to obey what’s there in those elements.”

Mirren didn’t look in a mirror to get the exact regal head tilt down. Instead she absorbed the royal’s physical and mental qualities to avoid doing a caricature of the Queen.

“I have all the tapes in my trailer. I have photographs of the Queen up in my trailer. I have three favorite photographs which I’ve got of her which I think show very beautifully three phases of the Queen.”

The Queen opens Friday.rn

“You don’t want the audience to be all caught up in your brilliant impersonation. You want them to believe who you are and go on her journey with you in an imaginative way.”