An actress I wish would always play herself
People often complain about actors and actresses who seem to "always play themselves" in their movies. Cary Grant and Diane Keaton come to mind. But I don't mind it at all, because there are some people who are so wonderful as themselves, I don't ever want to see them play anyone else! And Helen Mirren is one of them.
Now for the whiny part of this post – it's the one thing that bugs me about her film career! I know she's a good actress, because she's always playing a variety of parts, hardly ever playing herself – that is to say, the British woman with the posh accent and the beautiful shoulderlength white hair. She is just smoldering hot, and I would love to see her play a variation of herself, in more romantic roles. One thing I've noticed about her filmography is that she tends to not play in women's pictures very often. The romantic dramas (at least in this later stage of her life) are few and far between.
Some people bemoan the fact that she came to Hollywood so late in her career, but I think it served her well, because it means that in our eyes, she's never aged a day – she's a sophisticated silver fox who just always was....
The past 10 or 12 years have been good to her. Not only careerwise, but physically, sex appeal wise, everything… I consider this her undisputed renaissance period. And because of that, it bugs the heck out of me that she doesn't utilize her sex appeal to the full advantage – by being in steamy romantic movies, by being in films where she can be the posh sophisticate that she is, and woo us with her wonderful and beautiful accent and voice. She is someone I don't ever want to hear without the British accent, because it is so fitting to her. Without it, she loses a great deal of her appeal, I'm sorry to say.
Yes, Dame Helen Mirren is somebody who should always play herself – as evidenced by the fact that she is far more sexy on her late-night talk-show appearances than she has been in some of her later films! Now what does that tell you?
She has far too much sexiness to be wasted on stupid action films, stuffy historical claptrap, etc. I want to see her in romantic comedies and steamy dramas. They would have us in dreamland for days!
Come on movie people – you see what we like in Helen Mirren! Time to capitalize on it!!
I'm sorry to say that I like her more than I like her films. Many of them, I can't even get into, and it makes me so irritated, because I like her so much!
Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!