Helen Mirrenis expressing her condolences afterQueen Elizabeth II’s death at 96.
On Thursday, Buckingham Palace announced that theQueen “died peacefully at Balmoralthis afternoon.” Her death follows her husband of 73 years,Prince Philip, who died at age 99 in April 2021.
“I am proud to be an Elizabethan. We mourn a woman, who, with or without the crown, was the epitome of nobility,“wroteMirren.
Queen Elizabeth II meets with Helen Mirren in May 2011.Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty
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When Mirrenacceptedher Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, she said in her speech at the time, “Now, you know, for 50 years and more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle. She’s had her feet planted firmly on the ground, her hat on her head, her handbag on her arm and she’s weathered many, many storms.”
“I salute her courage and her consistency. And I thank her, because if it wasn’t for her I most, most certainly would not be here,” she added.
“She invited me for tea,” Mirren began. “I thought it was going to be in a room with 200 other people, which it often is. I’ve met her once before and it was in a room with 200 other people. So I said, ‘Oh, well, I can manage that.’ So it was at the horsey place and the message came to me that the Queen would like to invite you to tea, she knows you’re here.”
Helen Mirren inThe Queen(2006).Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection
“So I walk in, and there’s like eight people sitting around a table.Prince Philip, the Queen, a Sheik of somewhere or other and a couple of horsey people. I know absolutely nothing about horses, at all, and the Queen knows everything about horses,” continued Mirren, adding that she was “desperately trying to make polite conversation and it’s just coming out like gobbledygook.”
Mirren added of the meeting that “they were lovely, they were utterly gracious.”
source: people.com
