Helen Mirren: Russell Brand was “intimidating” and “scary”

Helen Mirren thought her Arthur co-star, Russell Brand, was “an intimidating person” before they began filming, even though they’d worked together before. She told Stylist: “We had worked on The Tempest together but never really spent time together until this. Russell is quite an intimidating person.” However, the 65-year-old admitted that she “fell in love” with Brand when she got to know him, saying, “He’s so brilliant and rock and roll and I feel so boring and ordinary next to him. So it was quite scary. And I’m not very good at edgy, modern comedy. But in the film meeting I saw this incredibly bright and interesting person making this thing happen — and I fell in love.” While talking to Tribute, she revealed: “I looked at him with awe a lot of the time — what you see on my face [in the film] is awe. I grew more and more to love him as the days went on.”

As it turns out, Russell was equally scared to work with Helen, because of her status as an Oscar winner and the fact that she’s been named a “Dame of the British Empire.” He said: “I was frightened before I met her, it made me talk a bit different — like my breathing changed.” He told Tribute: “We got on very well making The Tempest but it was only while making Arthur that I really saw what a beautiful person she is. The relationship I have with her in the film, that’s similar to our actual relationship.”

Putting on an imperious British accent he imitated Helen, saying: “Oh Russell. What are you doing? Why don’t you hurry along?” He joked: “She sort of treats me like that in actual life. She’s a little more sexy than Hobson, you’ve got to say, Helen Mirren. But she does have that sense of being able to boss you around and it’s kind of nice.” 

In the movie, Mirren plays Arthur’s nanny, and our interviewer, Bonnie, commented: “Sexy nannies sometimes don’t work,” to which Russell replied, “If you googled it, it would work,” adding, “but I don’t think it would work as a babysitting system.” ~Alexandra Heilbron