Helen Mirren: Force of nature

If any other nominee told you she was happy to not take home the 2009 Best Actress Oscar, you probably wouldn't believe her. But when Dame Helen Mirren says so, you do.

"I know it sounds like I'm just saying this, but I was very, very happy that Sandra Bullock won," says Mirren, 64, on the line from London.

"Her performance [in The Blind Side] was magnificent. Whether or not her movies were all good movies, Sandra's work has been consistently fantastic. And she happens to be just one of the nicest people on the planet. It couldn't go to anyone better as far as I was concerned."

For Mirren, who's racked up more awards than years of life, news of a nomination is still a thrill.

"It's just as exciting, just not so terribly intimidating, and that's the nice thing. When it first happens, it's oh so scary. It's terrifying. Oh my God, you're just praying your name won't be called. You have to get up there and make a fool of yourself."

Mirren is, frankly, fabulous. Despite having done hundreds of interviews, she is engaging and entertaining, cogent and candid without a trace of been-there, done-that. But in a 45-year career on stage and screens both big and small, she's done plenty.

Since her start as a theatre wunderkind in the mid-60s, the boundary-pushing actress has tackled more than 100 roles: from Detective Jane Tennison in long-running BBC miniseries Prime Suspect through to numerous Shakespearean heroines and six queens. It was her turn as current monarch Elizabeth II in The Queen that earned her the 2006 Best Actress Oscar.

Now we get to see the raison d'etre for her 2009 Oscar nomination for The Last Station, out here on June 3. The stirring historical drama is set in 1910 during the sunset years of revered Russian author, philosopher and reformist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer).

Ailing in his 80s, the ascetic idealist is pulled in two directions: between his work and his wife. The tempestuous Countess Sofya (Mirren) urges him to leave the rights to his works to the family, to guarantee their financial security. But not if smarmy disciple Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) can convince Tolstoy, a private-property opponent, to bequeath his works to the Russian people.

All this is told through the eyes of Tolstoy's naive young private secretary Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), who lives on the estate. As Tolstoy becomes more frustrated over the squabbling and interruptions to his work, the tension between husband and wife boils over.

For Mirren, The Last Station is less historical drama, more love story. "It's a tribute to love. It's about the difficulty of love. The changing nature of love. Lust and love. Young love and old love." The first flush of romance, between Valentin and teacher Masha, is deftly juxtaposed with the Tolstoys' nearly 50-year marriage.

Husband and wife were very different. "He was a romantic idealist, she was much more practical," admits Mirren - think the U2 song With or Without You - but don't dare suggest that nowadays such a couple might divorce.

"Absolutely not. They only hit this wall after a very long, successful marriage, and only because he was getting old and being co-opted by fanatical followers," argues Mirren, who has been with director husband Taylor Hackford for 24 years. "Challenges are thrown at all marriages and I think, unless there's abuse, people should fight through them."

And fight Sofya does. If you think you've seen Mirren at her best, you ain't seen nothing yet. As Rolling Stone magazine put it, Mirren's Sofya is "a lusty, roaring wonder". Other adjectives hurled at the scene-stealing spitfire include passionate, panicked, manipulative, melodramatic, vicious, vehement, even volcanic.

"You don't need a husband, you need a Greek chorus!" harrumphs Plummer's Tolstoy of a woman who'll work herself into a rage then systematically smash the china. "Oh, that scene was such fun!" recalls Mirren. "The wonderfulness and excessiveness of Sofya was simply irresistible to me."

Sofya is not a sympathetic character, but Mirren's triumph is in making her one. We don't necessarily like Sofya, but we feel for and empathise with her as we observe her dedication to her husband, her passionate spirit, her empathy for Valentin's romance, and the loss of five of her 13 children.

But this is no dry, depressing drama. In fact, what sold Mirren on the script was its comedy. "My kind of humour. Not in-your-face humour but the subtle humour of human behaviour, human circumstance, and how absurdly people can behave in extremities. And the fact it's a true story appealed. Luckily, they all kept diaries, so we know this is actually how they behaved."

To Mirren, the Russia of a century ago is closer to home than you might think. Her grandfather Pyotr Vassilievich Mironov was a Tsarist colonel, aristocrat and diplomat who was stranded in England during the Russian Revolution - and stayed.

"Tolstoy's family and my family came from a similar class, economic and intellectual background," says Mirren, who was born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov. Her viola-playing, civil-servant father changed his name to Basil and the family name to Mirren in the 1950s.

While the Essex girl grew up knowing little about her Russian roots, she did become a Tolstoy fan - eventually. "I didn't manage to read War and Peace until the third or fourth try. But once I got into it, it blew me away. It's the most extraordinary, magnificent piece of work, and to hear that Sofya Tolstoy proofread it and copied it out by hand six times ..." Mirren trails off with a gasp.

At 460,000 words times six, Sofya surely got RSI. Mirren's a tad protective of her character. "Sofya was a partner in the creation of her husband's masterworks. "She dedicated her life and energies to him and their family. But their daughter Sasha wrote in her autobiography 'Why can't Mother just be quiet and know her place?'

"It was a weird sort of retro, anti-feminist point-of-view. Sofya was really strong-willed; she felt she counted and her opinion counted. The one thing she couldn't stand was being ignored and sidelined. So being cut off from her husband upset her hugely, enraged her. She was devastated by it. And in that world, a married woman had no power whatsoever."

Perhaps Sofya's world was too small for such a strong personality denied individual expression. Does Mirren, whose often-risque performances pushed boundaries during the sexual revolution and feminism of the 60s and 70s, think Sofya would have thrived a century later?

"Absolutely, she would have gone 'Oh, this is how it should be - about bloody time'," says Mirren, admitting the film made her glad she lives today.

"Mind you, I prefer their costumes - except for the corset."

Certainly she still has the figure to squeeze into one. Dubbed a role model for growing old gracefully, the woman who once said she was famous for being cool about not being gorgeous has also mentioned that the measurement of her ageing body for a wax replica at Madame Tussauds tested her body confidence.

But, at nearly 65, how cool is it that she trumps the likes of Megan Fox on sexiest-women lists?

"That's terribly exciting, naturally," she deadpans.

"No, really, it's lovely, it's funny and slightly teasing. But I try not to take too much notice of it because as night follows day, it will go."

Undoubtedly, Mirren has helped paved the way for older actresses seeking meaty roles.

"The age barrier is still there, but for both sexes. Young actors, like young actresses, hit a wall in their mid-to-late 30s because they're not young and pretty any more. And I kind of understand it because seeing beautiful people onscreen is a pleasure. But the good thing about being an older actor is the characters you get to play are more interesting."

Like stormy Sofya or our stiff-upper-lip Queen, who could hardly have been more different.

"Exactly. I'm always hoping a part will come along that's different from the last one - but that's pretty rare because if you do something [well], everybody wants you to do it over and over again."

Particularly playing queens. "That typecasting is what we actors fight against. I like to chop and change."

Roles have to be challenging - and fun. For instance, she'd always wanted to "fly on wires" and got to do so across a canyon and in adventure fantasy National Treasure 2 (she'll be back in next year's National Treasure 3). But mainstream flicks are more an occasional indulgence than everyday fare.

"I love to do independent films. I love a small budget. I love a tight schedule. I'm very comfortable in that scenario." Certainly there's no shortage of scripts for movies big or small.

Fifty years ago, could she have ever imagined such success?

"Absolutely, because when you're young, you're stupid, crazed, ambitious, and you can't understand why things aren't happening for you. For half of my career I was doing fine but not great, making a living and hoping things would change. And they did.

"Now, it's not that I've got nothing to prove, it's that I'm more relaxed about the whole thing. I find it easier to have fun with it, and just take it as it comes. If something's successful, great. And if it's not, well, it's not the end of the world. It's all a bit of a roller-coaster - you go up hills and down valleys."

Right now, she's just enjoying the ride.

* The Last Station is out in cinemas from Thursday.