Helen Mirren Once Shared Winning Her Oscar Stopped Unkind Feelings She Had Towards Other Actors
Academy Award winner Helen Mirren has been one of Hollywood’s most iconic and acclaimed stars for decades. The industry acknowledged Mirren’s long term contributions to the industry by awarding her the Oscar.
Mirren especially appreciated receiving the prestigious award as it helped stop her unflattering feelings towards herself and her peers.
What Oscar did Helen Mirren win an Oscar for?
Dame Helen Mirren has a variety of respected and prolific movies under her extensive film resume. Eventually, she would go on to receive Oscar nominations for four of the several movies she’s starred in. Her first nomination came in 1995, where she was considered for a Best Supporting Actress award for her film The Madness of King George.
She received another nomination in 2002 for the drama Gosford Park for the same category. It wasn’t until 2007 that she’d receive a Best Actress Oscar for her work in The Queen. The film was a biographical drama that explored the aftermath of the late Princess Diana’s death. Mirren would portray Queen Elizabeth II with a performance that impressed many.
Mirren was also nominated once again for the prestigious prize in 2010 for the drama The Last Station.
However, in the midst of making the movie, Mirren wasn’t interested in indulging in the film’s Oscar buzz.
“There’s a road, and there’s a sign that says awards, and there’s an arrow, and you go, oh, I want to go that way. And you completely miss the sign that says beware falling rocks. So I try not to go down that road, I say just march ahead and see what happens,” she once told Black Film.
However, she appreciated the attention Oscar buzz might bring to The Queen.
“But, obviously, we want people to see our movie. They’re expensive things to make, you don’t make them for no one to go and see them. You want to get an audience, and a very good tool is nominated. So on that level it’s important. On a personal level I never walk down that road,” she added.
Helen Mirren had ungenerous feelings before winning her Oscar
In an interview with The Guardian, Mirren confided that winning the Oscar helped her purge some negative thoughts she harbored. A younger Mirren had a streak of competitiveness in regards to her career. But as she grew older, she managed to mellow out some. It was an attitude that winning the Academy Award helped nurture.
“In the full knowledge that awards mean nothing, winning the Oscar for The Queen was fabulous in that I felt I didn’t have to worry anymore,” Mirren once said. “All those ungenerous feelings – ‘Why did she get it and not me?’ – just disappeared overnight. It’s horrible and unpleasant and disturbing, all of that, but it doesn’t stop you feeling it. I feel very much I can now do exactly what I want.”
However, Mirren also confided that traces of her ambitions still stuck around. And she was pretty sure they always would.
“Though I think that drive – ‘Why am I stuck doing this? Why aren’t I doing that? – never goes away. All that ‘What on Earth am I doing with my life?’ is a constant,” she theorized.
Helen Mirren once shared that offers for roles didn’t ‘flood in’ after the Oscars
Mirren didn’t exactly experience a career boost after winning the prize, as might be the case with other Oscar-winners. She acknowledged that some believed she was being offered tons of prestigious roles due to her Oscar win and her veteran status. But Mirren revealed this was far from the truth.
“People think I sit there and there is a proposal from Tarantino and a script to star opposite Robert Redford. Good scripts remain incredibly rare, though, and often I’m too old or just occasionally too young,” she said.
