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Headline:

Chrissy "Commando" Iley goes undie-cover to interview the Dame. Well, what's thong with that!

Synopsis:

Helen Mirren says being naked on the screen gets easier with age, and next year she’s about to start work in a brothel. To show her commitment to engaging with her subjects, Chrissy Iley goes knickerless. Call it the "method" school of interviewing. Too much information arrives in the closing paragraphs of this article.



'There is no doubt about it. Helen Mirren has a simmering sexual presence. Hot and cold, withdrawn and flirty, disciplined and out of control. When we meet in her hotel, she’s just finished eating eight croissants. She says it as if she’s rather impressed with herself. She says it without guilt, but kind of licking her lips.

Mirren is starring in the children’s adventure movie Inkheart. The film is about what happens when you have the ability to make characters from books come to life. In the film, she plays an eccentric aunt who rides a motorcycle very fast, Lady Godiva hair swirling in the breeze. She says she took the part for that bike ride.

She looked extremely comfortable on it. “Well, I didn’t have to learn because I already had a motorbike when I was in my early twenties. So I thought, I don’t care what else happens, I want to be on that motorbike again. I got it when I was in Stratford because I needed transport and I thought it would be cool, and also cheap, because I couldn’t afford a car. But it wasn’t cheap, because you have to buy all the clothes.”

You imagine Mirren in her leathers. Striking. “The major problem was, when you stop at a light: you can’t balance, so you have to put one foot down and hold the bike up.” She stands up and straddles as if riding a bike to demonstrate. She’s wearing a cotton suit in milky beige and a white T-shirt. As she bends down, the skirt stretches over her bottom and thigh. Extremely tight. “I wasn’t strong enough, so at every traffic light I would topple over. I had it for three or four months and thought, this is not working out. But on the movie set I could just go and stop, and someone would hold up the bike. It was lovely.” ....


....As I get up to go, she stops me and says, 'And thank you for the view.' I blush. I was jet-lagged, I had no clean underwear, so I'd gone without. I didn't think she'd notice. But she did. And she laughs, the minx.'


Hmmmm....

Publish date:

16 November 2008

Author:

Chrissy Iley

Source:

Sunday Times Magazine

Media:

Access Interview