Dame Helen Mirren has reflected on her mortality, stating the “finality of life” has recently become “more real” to her.
The 79-year-old British star revealed she has not “personally” had a close brush with death, but said “as you travel through life, you become more and more aware of mortality”.
Mirren was speaking to The Independent ahead of her appearance alongside Harrison Ford in the second season of Taylor Sheridan’s expansive Yellowstone spin-off, 1923.
The British Oscar winner plays Irish immigrant Cara Dutton, wife of Ford’s rancher Jacob Dutton, in the Prohibition era-set series.
When asked if she’d ever had a close brush like her co-star Ford, who was involved in a horrifying plane crash in 2015, Mirren said: “No, not personally.”
However, she said that, as she’s gotten older and some of her Hollywood co-stars, including Dame Maggie Smith have died, she has reflected on the passage of time more and more.
“Certainly, when you're in your teens and early 20s, mortality – and quite rightfully –should never occur to you,” she continued.
“And as you get older and life develops around you and you lose friends or family, obviously, your awareness of the finality of life becomes more and more real to you.”
Prime Suspect star Mirren, whose career has spanned 60 years to date, added: “Hopefully that informs your acting because what are you as an actor except a reflection of life around you.”
In the Wall Street Journal’s February issue, Mirren revealed that Ford’s plane crash had informed his performance in a scene in season one where his character is shot multiple times.
“He’s been carried into the kitchen, dying and covered in blood, and later Harrison did say to me, ‘That was how I was after the accident,’” Mirren told the outlet, referring to his crash. “I think, maybe, going through that experience just gave him a very different understanding of what it is to be a sentient human being.”
Ford, 80, suffered critical injuries including a large laceration on his scalp as well as broken bones, leading him to remain hospitalized for almost a month after he was forced to make an emergency landing in his World War II vintage plane in southern California.
He has previously addressed how his near-fatal accident impacted his take on the Dutton patriarch in 1923.
"When the scripts were coming, I was struck by how many major moments in my character's life had a substantial and not coincidental shadow of the same things in my life," Ford said during an interview with People in 2023.
“I watched a rehearsal with a stand-in being brought into the kitchen, and Helen [Mirren] coming in, sweeping everything off the counter, taking command.”
“Even when I talk about it now, it emotionally relates to the airplane crash I had and what my wife went through,” he added.
The second season of 1923 will air on Sunday (23 February) on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping weekly. Fans can also stream season one in full on Paramount+.
