Helen Mirren gave an award-winning performance as Elizabeth II in 'The Queen', so it makes sense that she's set to reprise the role on stage. And, looking back over her movie career so far, it seems as if Dame Mirren was BORN to rule...
'Billy Elliot' director Stephen Daldry is set to direct her in ‘The Audience’, a new West End production that will premiere next February, in which she's set to portray Queen Liz from the tender age of 25 right through to her 80s.
However, despite the huge time period, covered, Dame Helen has been quoted by the Daily Mail as saying that the age problem is not as insurmountable as it may seem to us non-actor types.
"Her voice has changed, and I can use that — she had a terribly posh voice when she was young... But now even the Queen, while she isn’t quite dropping the ends of her lines — though her grandsons do — there’s a tiny bit of estuary creeping in there.
"I can use all that to signify the age range, and we’ll come up with other things."
She also explained that the play is all about the constantly shifting state of power between Elizabeth II and the members of parliament that have risen to power during her time on the throne:
"I think it’s about what power means and how people handle it. Not the Queen, incidentally, because she is comparatively powerless. But how power is held in the hands of these men — and one woman — and the effect that has on their personalities and their psyche."
"In the beginning, the Queen is the young, nervous, unknowledgeable one. ‘But as she progresses through them, they become the nervous ones. She’s the one constant, through a revolving door of prime ministers."
We've got every faith in Queen Mirren - after all, she's no stranger to playing royalty on stage, is she?
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