UPFRONT/WATCH
The Many Moods of Helen Mirren
OVER THE PAST six months, Helen Mirren, 78, has shown more range than many actors demonstrate in their entire careers. Here are the characters she’s given us lately.
GUNSLINGER HELEN
Cara Dutton in 1923 (streaming on Paramount+)
The missus of a Montana rancher (Harrison Ford, 81), she can sweet-talk a furious bride into delaying her wedding day so her fiancé can finish a cattle drive—and also shotgun a villain before he can shoot her dead.
SPLENETIC HELEN
Hespera in Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Despite a 40-pound costume that made restroom visits a chore and a stunt that broke her finger, she had a ball playing the goddess who can blow up your car with a flick of a finger.
MOTHERLY HELEN
“Queenie” Shaw in Fast X
Sure, she’s a thief and a jailbreaker, but Queenie (named after Mirren’s real-life cockney Aunt Queenie) is like a second mom to the movie’s hero Dom (Vin Diesel, 56).
CHATTY HELEN
Narrator in Barbie
She’s famous for her classy speaking voice, so of course she was asked to narrate the story of the world’s most popular doll.
COUNTRY MUSIC OUTLAW HELEN
Presenter in Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90
At the icon’s filmed 90th-birthday Hollywood Bowl concert, she introduced Tom Jones, 83, who sang Nelson’s “Opportunity to Cry.”
KINDLY HELEN
Grandmère in White Bird (in theaters August 18)
In an inspiring performance, she plays a grandma telling her grandson how her first love risked all to save her in Nazi-occupied France.
IRON LADY HELEN
Golda Meir in Golda (in theaters August 25)
Playing Israel’s indomitable prime minister during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, she tries to get help from Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber, 55). When he says, “I am first an American, second a secretary of state, third a Jew,” she wittily replies, “In this country, we read from right to left.” —T. A.