Helen Mirren has nothing but rave reviews for her experiences working with Bruce Willis.
The Oscar-winning actress says she “absolutely loved” teaming up with Willis on the 2010 action-comedy “Red,” which follows a retired black ops CIA agent who reunites with former colleagues to find out who’s trying to assassinate him.
“He taught me a lot about acting, actually,” Mirren told the Daily News while promoting her new comedy-drama, “The Duke.”
“When I came into ‘Red,’ I’d never really done that kind of movie before, and I was quite nervous. Number one, Bruce was incredibly welcoming and he immediately made me feel comfortable, and I will always be grateful to him for that. And then I would watch him, and Bruce was a brilliant actor. Brilliant.”
Willis’ family announced last month that the longtime action star is “stepping away” from acting at age 67 after being diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that can impact a person’s ability to communicate.
He and Mirren also worked together on the 2013 sequel “Red 2.” Mirren praised Willis’ “sense of timing” as an actor and said she “really tried to learn from him.”
“I can understand, we don’t want Bruce to leave our screens because he’s such a wonderful presence on screen,” Mirren, 76, said. “But also he’s given us an absolute, enormous, lifetime of work, and we should be grateful for that.”
Mirren’s next movie, “The Duke,” explores the real-life theft in 1961 of the Francisco Goya painting “Portrait of the Duke of Wellington.” Mirren stars as Dorothy Bunton, the wife of Kempton Bunton, a working-class man who stood trial for the painting’s disappearance.
“The Duke,” which is the final movie directed by late filmmaker Roger Michell, arrives in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on April 22.
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