Creating 'The Queen'

A controversial new film with echoes of Shakespearean intrigue and Greek tragedy, Stephen Frears' new movie The Queen may well be the must-see movie of the year for cineastes and theatre fans alike. The film follows the Royal Family and new Prime Minister Tony Blair in the wake of Princess Diana's death. While the Windsors sequester themselves in the Scottish retreat Balmoral, young Blair becomes the voice for the grieving nation, beginning a new era of a liberal England after years of conservatism under the Tories.  

Frears acknowledges that he received "neither cooperation nor non-cooperation" from the Crown or Downing Street in the making of the film, but also admits that he wouldn't have expected any. "I felt pretty confident that neither of them would get involved in any shape or form to try and influence me or restrict me," he says, though he admits that the film is "quite an impertinent idea." 

Screenwriter Peter Morgan takes that idea further, defiantly declaring that "it's absolutely ludicrous, the way we live, and the way these people govern; that this Germanic family passes on privilege and power at a time when we've all moved past that." Frears agrees that the institution of the Monarchy is "quite eccentric," but also acknowledges that "it's not going to go away." Parliament, on the other hand, received a revitalizing infusion of new blood by Tony Blair's 1997 landslide election. "The minute he came to power, a whole section of society felt like an anachronism," Morgan recalls. "Britain felt like it was dated. He was younger, more dynamic. He came in promising change and modernization." Diana's death, mere months after the election, was a catalyst for that change, and the aftermath laid the groundwork for a new England. Elizabeth had ruled through nine Prime Ministers prior to Blair, but he was the first one younger than her own children. "That's a really interesting mother/son-type clash," Morgan says, and describes the relationship between the Queen and Prime Minister as "Freudian."  

Dame Helen feels much more warmly towards her monarch. "I think there is a value in having an iconic representative of your country, your history, your culture," she says. "I can't think of what in America would be the dearest, the most fundamental historical representative of your country," she continues, and muses on the Liberty Bell or Mt. Rushmore before choosing an appropriate equivalent. "The Queen," she says, with no small amount of pride in her voice, "is our Statue of Liberty."  

Playing two Queen Elizabeths in one year was a unique challenge for Mirren. There was a certain freedom in recreating the Virgin Queen, she says, since "no one knows what she sounded like or walked like or how she turned her head or what her smile was like."  Elizabeth II, on the other hand, "not only is living, but also incredibly well-known. Everyone knows what she sounds like and looks like and talks like and how she wears her hair, and so you have to fulfill that."  

In order to accurately portray such a well-known person, Mirren studied her subject both inside and out, finding the human being within the icon. "You study her psychologically and thoughtfully and, hopefully, with sensitivity," she says. For the physical end, she watched videos of the Queen in between takes whenever she was off the set, and studied photographs to capture her face. Ultimately, makeup played a very small role in the physical transformation: "I slightly thinned my mouth down and slightly thickened my eyebrows, and that was it." The rest of the development was internal. "It became second nature," she says. "I loved being the Queen."  

Another significant presence in the film is Diana herself. Nearly ten years since her death, the People's Princess (a title bestowed by Blair) is still as revered and beloved as ever. "She was so much a part of our media lives," Mirren remembers. "You could go to any newsstand anywhere in the world in the ten years before she died, and find a cover of a magazine with Diana on it any day of the week. She was more photographed and talked about in the media than anyone in the history of humanity." Indeed, Mirren believes that England was addicted to Diana, who she describes as being the nation's heroin as much as heroine. "The terror of losing that addiction was huge," she says. "I think that it's still there." 

The Queen may well feed the still-hungry addiction for insider stories of the Royal Family. The film has already garnered a certain amount of controversy, and there is plenty of Oscar buzz. "I'm thrilled that people outside Britain are remotely interested in this film," Morgan says. "It seems to be a film about Britain and the way Britain is put together and the way we live. And the fact that that might appeal to anyone outside Britain is fantastic for me, and for us."