57 year old Helen Mirren gets naked for Tennessee Williams
CliffB
Mirren bares all in Showtime's 'Roman Spring'
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/s_132038.html
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Helen Mirren stars in Tennessee Williams' 'The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone'
Associated Press
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"The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone"
8 p.m. Sunday, Showtime
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By Bridget Byrne
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, May 1, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- One reason Helen Mirren enjoyed making Tennessee Williams'
"The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" was the "gorgeous clothes" she wore for the
Showtime movie.
But in some scenes, Mirren's not wearing any clothes at all. No problem,
says the 57-year-old British-born actress. In her view, nudity is no more of
a challenge than baring it all emotionally. And the older she gets, the less
difficult it's become.
Mirren is dressed in elegant, 1950s-era creations by costume designer Dona
Granta for her role as Karen Stone, the widowed and retired Broadway star
who falls for a young gigolo (Olivier Martinez) in the TV movie based on
Williams' novella.
"It's easy, definitely easier. You don't care so much any more. I never
thought I did, but actually you feel unattractive younger, funnily enough.
You're more self-critical," said Mirren, best known to American audiences
for her portrayal of no-nonsense, coolly efficient Police Superintendent
Jane Tennison in public television's "Prime Suspect."
"I felt much less attractive then and it mattered more. Now it doesn't
matter. I really don't care. I'm a fully paid-up member of the 'Gerard
Depardieu school of acting.' Take it all off, let it all hang out, what the
... kind of attitude," she said with a laugh.
She starred as a seductive teenager opposite James Mason in Michael Powell's
1969 film "Age of Consent" and as a prostitute in 1980's "Hussy."
Now comes this emotional drama. Mirren's name was attached to the "Roman
Spring" project -- which also stars Anne Bancroft as the Contessa -- when it
was brought to Showtime some two years ago.
"Helen was 100 percent what lured us into making this," says Jerry Offsay,
Showtime's programming president.
Working with Mirren usually means "you have to get your tuxedo pressed,"
says Offsay, referring to her numerous acting honors, including a Golden
Globe for Showtime's "Losing Chase" and Emmys for "The Passion of Ayn Rand"
and "Prime Suspect 4."
Mirren also has been nominated for two Oscars for her supporting roles in
"Gosford Park" and "The Madness of King George."
"The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" was previously filmed in 1961 with Vivien
Leigh as Stone, Warren Beatty as the gigolo and Lotte Lenya as the Contessa.
Mirren describes the film as "unsexy, so sort of dull and drab."
Consequently, she says, "It wasn't like remaking some great movie. We never
felt that. It was just, 'Let's do it right."'
That meant being faithful to Williams' tone and viewpoint.
"He was one of the truly great writers and a poet of extraordinary
sensibility for the unseen things of life ... so it wasn't just a
dry-sexual-mores-of-the-'50s kind of thing. Tennessee was really writing
about himself -- about addiction and desire and the nature of love and the
nature of aging, the nature of art and success and beauty. It's all right
there," Mirren says.
Some interior scenes were filmed in Ireland, but much was shot in Rome.
Mirren says the production crew performed "absolute miracles" re-creating
the period atmosphere at famous locations such as The Spanish Steps and the
Coliseum.
"We always sent pretty girls to hold the cars back, but logistically it was
really, really, really difficult. It meant you had to run and act the scene
and get out of there. There were no second takes," she said.
Mirren's upcoming films include "Calendar Girls," sort of a female version
of "The Full Monty" about a group of middle-aged women who take off their
clothes to raise money for charity.
She's just finished the thriller "The Clearing," opposite Robert Redford. "I
didn't have to take my clothes off," Mirren says.
Wait a minute. She rethinks.
"Actually I did. I had a bath scene. They were going, 'Look we have this
flesh-colored swim costume you can put on.' I went, 'Don't be ridiculous!"'
MC
CliffB <fl...@gosympatico.ca> wrote:
> Mirren bares all in Showtime's 'Roman Spring'
>
She's been flashing audiences for over 30 years. I just saw "O Lucky
Man" again for the first time in a long time, and although she keeps her
clothes on in that, she really was megababelicious in her 20s.
Rather large wooblies, too.
Mpoconnor7
>Man" again for the first time in a long time, and although she keeps her
>clothes on in that, she really was megababelicious in her 20s.
>
>Rather large wooblies, too.
I remember when she was Morganna in Excalibur there was a scene when she was
giving birth to Modred and was nude but I think that would have had to been a
body double. She was pretty hot in that movie, even for a villian.
Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man
"The probability of one person being right increases in a direct porportion to
the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
CliffB
copeS...@ca.inter.net wrote on 5/3/03 2:45 PM:
She was sexy in White Nights too; and in The Thief, His Wife, The Lover and
The Chef, or whatever the title of that Greenaway pic was.
MJF
"CliffB" <fl...@gosympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:BAD9697A.3D645%fl...@gosympatico.ca...
>
>
> Mirren bares all in Showtime's 'Roman Spring'
>
>
MJF
MC
"MJF" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Mirren bares all in Showtime's 'Roman Spring'
> >
> >
> I can only hope to have Mirren's confidence when I am 57.
To say nothing of her wooblies.
Woodie69
>
> > > Mirren bares all in Showtime's 'Roman Spring'
> > >
> > >
> > I can only hope to have Mirren's confidence when I am 57.
>
> To say nothing of her wooblies.
I've always thought that she was very attractive, she's one of the ones that
has been aging very well. Do you think Catherine Deneuve would still bare
it all now? Talk about sexy....
Tom Cervo
>I can only hope to have Mirren's confidence when I am 57.
>MJF
Not confidence, just habit. You probably have to pay extra to make her keep her
clothes on.
3finger
MC <copeS...@ca.inter.net> wrote:
Which I can say, having seen an advance copy of the film, are still
pretty damn nifty. :)
--
3finger
Chicago Cubs, Back-to-Back World Champions -- 1907, 1908
MJF
"MC" <copeS...@ca.inter.net> wrote in message
news:copeSPAMZAP-66B1...@mail.inter.net...
Nah, I'm pretty proud of my own wooblies.
MJF
MC
"MJF" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > > I can only hope to have Mirren's confidence when I am 57.
> >
> > To say nothing of her wooblies.
>
> Nah, I'm pretty proud of my own wooblies.
And I'm sure they do you proud.
Nico Girl
lover--this was only a few years ago.
And my 'wobblies' are holding their own very well. It gives me hope
for their future--may I have perky 'wobblies' when I am 57. :)
"MJF" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote in message news:<dh0ta.3055$dl6.1...@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com>...
MC
ladyt...@yahoo.com (Nico Girl) wrote:
> Wasn't she naked in the HBO Ayn Rand biopic & Eric Stoltz played her
> lover--this was only a few years ago.
>
> And my 'wobblies' are holding their own very well. It gives me hope
> for their future--may I have perky 'wobblies' when I am 57. :)
Wooblies. Please. Not wobblies. (Unless, of course your wooblies are
wobblies).
Mason Barge
>>She's been flashing audiences for over 30 years. I just saw "O Lucky
>>Man" again for the first time in a long time, and although she keeps her
>>clothes on in that, she really was megababelicious in her 20s.
>>
>>Rather large wooblies, too.
>
>I remember when she was Morganna in Excalibur there was a scene when she was
>giving birth to Modred and was nude but I think that would have had to been a
>body double. She was pretty hot in that movie, even for a villian.
Yeah but she was totally outclassed by the unbelievably nubile and succulent
Katrine Boorman getting nailed by Uther in full armor.
--
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
- Abraham Lincoln
WeirdSister2003
fiftes. Now I must rendezvous with Diana Rigg somewhere south of
Bristol.
MC
weirdsis...@yahoo.com (WeirdSister2003) wrote:
> Helen Mirren is proof positive that a woman can stay hot into her
> fiftes. Now I must rendezvous with Diana Rigg somewhere south of
> Bristol.
The years have been a bit kinder to Mirren than to Rigg if you ask me...
Kenji
MC <copeS...@ca.inter.net> wrote in message news:<copeSPAMZAP-C2E1...@mail.inter.net>...
CliffB
ladyt...@yahoo.com wrote on 5/4/03 7:30 AM:
> Wasn't she naked in the HBO Ayn Rand biopic & Eric Stoltz played her
> lover--this was only a few years ago.
>
> And my 'wobblies' are holding their own very well. It gives me hope
> for their future--may I have perky 'wobblies' when I am 57. :)
"You say wooblies, I say wobblies......
Tomaytoe, Tomahto, potayto, potahto.....
Let's take the whole bra off......."
By the way, this discussion has been giving Helen's rear end short shrift.
How does it stack up? Her hubby Taylor Hackford doesn't seem to have any
complaints.
Tad Davis
mpoco...@aol.comnojunk (Mpoconnor7) wrote:
> I remember when she was Morganna in Excalibur there was a scene when she was
> giving birth to Modred and was nude but I think that would have had to been a
> body double. She was pretty hot in that movie, even for a villian.
In the original version of the film -- the one that actually shows Uther
(in armor) and Ygraine (not in armor) making the beast with two backs --
there were at least two scenes where Mirren was clearly wearing nothing
under a kind of hempen fishnet thingy. Those glimpses, along with the
Uther and Ygraine flash in the pan, so to speak, and some of the more
grisly pecking at decaying eyesockets by crows, were cut in the version
that was released on VHS. They've been restored on DVD.
--
Tad Davis
tadd...@ucwphilly.rr.com
http://taddavis.blogspot.com
WareWolf
"Mason Barge" <masonbar...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ue8abvkbr5nce4ok9...@4ax.com...
> On 03 May 2003 19:11:15 GMT, mpoco...@aol.comnojunk (Mpoconnor7) wrote:
>
> >I remember when she was Morganna in Excalibur there was a scene when she
was
> >giving birth to Modred and was nude but I think that would have had to
been a
> >body double. She was pretty hot in that movie, even for a villian.
>
> Yeah but she was totally outclassed by the unbelievably nubile and
succulent
> Katrine Boorman getting nailed by Uther in full armor.
God, I remember that. I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my seat.
Dusty
--
This week's column: They've Got a Little List
http://dusty.booksnbytes.com/columns/2003/2003_0427.html
Tom Cervo
>succulent
>> Katrine Boorman getting nailed by Uther in full armor.
>
>
>God, I remember that. I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my seat.
>
> Dusty
Hey! These days, a man needs protection!
Ambrose Meineke
Ambrose
Mpoconnor7
>(in armor) and Ygraine (not in armor) making the beast with two backs --
>there were at least two scenes where Mirren was clearly wearing nothing
>under a kind of hempen fishnet thingy. Those glimpses, along with the
>Uther and Ygraine flash in the pan, so to speak, and some of the more
>grisly pecking at decaying eyesockets by crows, were cut in the version
>that was released on VHS. They've been restored on DVD.
>
I'll have to get the DVD. Excalibur has always been one of my favorite films,
for one reason because it had relatively unknown actors in it who would become
movie and or TV stars like Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, and
Patrick Stewart with some hair. Also I thought it was one of the most
beautifully photographed movies I've ever seen; the cinematography was
brilliant.
Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man
"The likelyhood of one individual being correct increases in a direct
proportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".
Kal Alexander
Will definitely have to put that on my shopping list. The video always
did seem like Excaliber 'Lite'.
--
Later
Kal
--
Don't look now, but I think our village
is full of idiots!
Mason Barge
>
>"Mason Barge" <masonbar...@aol.com> wrote in message
>news:ue8abvkbr5nce4ok9...@4ax.com...
>> On 03 May 2003 19:11:15 GMT, mpoco...@aol.comnojunk (Mpoconnor7) wrote:
>>
>
>> >I remember when she was Morganna in Excalibur there was a scene when she
>was
>> >giving birth to Modred and was nude but I think that would have had to
>been a
>> >body double. She was pretty hot in that movie, even for a villian.
>>
>> Yeah but she was totally outclassed by the unbelievably nubile and
>succulent
>> Katrine Boorman getting nailed by Uther in full armor.
>
>
>God, I remember that. I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my seat.
>
> Dusty
Are you serious? OMG I had to clean the drool off my shoes.