Helen Mirren on The Queen

The Queen is familiar, and yet strangely mysterious, a figure most of us have grown up with and yet know little about. This is the antithesis of modern celebrity, and yet Stephen Frears' new film, The Queen, is all the more fascinating as it depicts the everyday with as much conviction as the great affairs of state.

Here these affairs are dominated by the death of Diana, formerly Princess of Wales, and the involvement of the new Blair government in her grand state funeral. This was a hastily arranged means of channelling the spontaneous outpouring of emotion her death provoked, and diverting criticism from the staid and increasingly isolated House of Windsor headed by Elizabeth II.

Dame Helen Mirren, recently honoured with the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her performance, is spellbinding in the role. She achieves an unexpectedly accurate physical likeness while suggesting innate qualities of duty and stoicism, characteristics that are subtly conveyed and yet strikingly believable. Not that Mirren's portrayal is without emotion. Far from it.

"She can't just be an empty shell," Mirren explains, "because I don't think that's what the real person is. It's very interesting when you look at the Queen, she's so contained and calm, everything is in its place and perfect. But when you look closely there's always something moving. It's usually her finger, moving all the time, or turning her wedding ring. She looks utterly composed, so you don't notice it at first, but there are these little tiny clues of an inner energy."

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