Video:Helen Mirren Interview - The Tempest

Transcript:Helen Mirren Interview - The Tempest

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the LA Premiere of Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films' The Tempest.

Helen Mirren - 'Prospera' in The Tempest

What are audiences going to learn from The Tempest?

Helen Mirren: "I don't think you ought to learn anything from Shakespeare because that makes it seem like school, you know? But the fact is Shakespeare is eternally brilliant and moving and exciting. Once you kind of hook into that, then nothing will hold you back and you'll love Shakespeare for the rest of your life. And it's tough - yes, it's tough. It's a challenge, but life can't all be easy, you know? You've got to challenge yourself."

In terms of playing a female version of Prospero, was there any particular challenge to that?

Helen Mirren: "Oh no, it fits beautifully as a woman. I think it fits beautifully. Of course it was a challenge for me personally, because it is one of the great Shakespearean roles. You're very conscious of all the great actors who played it before you, all the great actors who are going to play it after you. So you want to at least be as good as they are."


What do you think it is about the story that makes it still relevant to an audience today?

Helen Mirren: "Shakespeare is always relevant. It's never not relevant, because it's simply about the human condition. So whether you're doing King Henry the V or you're doing Coriolanus, which is about ancient Rome or The Tempest which is about a fantastical sort of world of the imagination, it's always relevant. That's why we still do Shakespeare because it's never going to become irrelevant because he doesn't talk about what life was - of course he does to a certain extent about what life was like in the Elizabethan age - but more he talks about what it is like to be a human being in any age at any time of history. So that's why it's always relevant."

Does that make the character connect more with an audience now because she's female?

Helen Mirren: "I hope so. Yes, I hope so."

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