Dame Helen Mirren is beaming through the screen from somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains. With her well-lit, pale face, her hair in a wrap and little make-up, it’s as if one is looking through Mirren’s dressing room mirror. Or she’s about to tell your fortune.
She’s not backstage but at the home in Lake Tahoe that she shares with American director husband Taylor Hackford and sometimes local wildlife – she made headlines a few years ago for shooing away a curious black bear.
The reason for the short interview is Mirren playing Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in Golda, a film focused on 1973′s Yom Kippur War, which proved the Zionist stateswoman’s political undoing. Released in Israel, the UK and the US in the middle of last year, its wider release was held back due to October 7 and its aftermath.
The film barely mentions Palestine or the Ukrainian-born Meir’s role in its history, her having immigrated there in the early 1920s from the United States, and then later famously stating: “There was no such thing as Palestinians,” which she later said was reference to there never having been a Palestine nation.
Golda tells its story as a series of flashbacks during her testimony to a post-Yom Kippur War commission of inquiry into Israel’s military failings. It also shows the chain-smoking Meir being secretly treated for the lymphoma that killed her at age 80 in 1978.
It’s possibly Mirren’s toughest character and best performance in years, considering she’s mostly been doing support roles in popcorn fare.
When the film-makers approached you, did you get the sense that if you took on the role, it would give the film more attention than it might have got otherwise?
I hope that was more to do with some belief that I could carry it off than whether it would get attention or not. One of the first things I said to [Israeli director] Guy Nattiv was “I’m not Jewish. Maybe you think I am because I’ve played a lot of Jewish roles, but I’m not actually Jewish and if that’s a problem, I absolutely will step away without any hard feelings. I understand.” He said, “No, no, we want you to do it.” So that was very important for me. It was very important for me that the family of Golda Meir approved of me playing her, and indeed, Golda’s family and her grandson were big supporters.
The film had its premiere and opened in many places before October 7. Do you think it plays differently and resonates in different ways since?
It absolutely plays differently. But the facts are the facts. The interesting thing was that for a long time after the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir was persona non grata because they lost so many of the young men in that war and they were on the losing side, and Israel was literally about to be wiped off the face of the Earth. And she took the brunt for that, and she accepted it. Although, as the film exposes, it was the military who really messed up for various reasons, including their hubris from their huge success in the Six Day War. The papers exposing what actually happened in those days have only just become public, and it’s off the back of the publication of those that Guy wanted to do this film. After October 7, it became a very difficult, although a very interesting moment, to re-examine and remember this part of the history of Israel.
Back in the early 70s, what was your perception of Golda Meir?
It had a massive effect on me. Just the concept that a woman could be the political leader of a country was incomprehensible at that point. Being elected the leader of a country was unheard of, in my experience, so it was cataclysmic for me. It was such a revelation and such a moment of optimism for me because it was a very, very important moment. Especially because Golda looked the way Golda looked …
She wasn’t a television politician.
She was not a television politician. Although, of course, whenever she spoke, she was incredibly articulate, very funny, very charming and very appealing. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why they chose her to lead the country.
And this movie focuses on the period in which she started to lose her grasp on the leadership of Israel, having been such a pivotal person in its history.
Yes, that tiny moment. A story of her life was done with Ingrid Bergman, as I’m sure you’re aware, and that was more of a biopic. I still think there is room for a wonderful biopic of Golda, starting in Ukraine, going to America with her as a young woman, then her early days in Israel before World War II, and the incredible pain of her seeing from a distance the inability of the Jewish people to escape from the Holocaust. So, it’s a very powerful biopic to be made. I hope that it’s done one of these days.
Still, in this one, you’re in almost every scene, you’re in heavy make-up and you’re smoking like a chimney throughout. It looked like a tough job.
It was. It was a long day for me because one cannot play Golda without looking like Golda and it was such a specific look and such an iconic look. So, you had to achieve some sort of physical transformation. And we did that with all the normal sort of tools that we have – a bodysuit, prosthetics, wig and eye lenses. But of course, that was quite time consuming. So, it took about two hours to get ready in the morning and then about an hour to take it all off at night.
But I have to say, very strangely, when I was in Golda, I absolutely felt totally comfortable. I didn’t feel I was in a costume. I felt it became me to the extent that when I saw a reflection of myself as Golda walking past a mirror, I completely recognised that as being me. It was very strange. The look and the costume and everything were incredibly important for the psychological transformation.
How does that compare with playing Queen Elizabeth I or II? Or Catherine the Great? I guess with the lavish period pieces, the clothes help.
Yes, they do but playing Queen Elizabeth II, I used very little make-up. My physiognomy is fairly close to the royal family, for some reason. I always used to look like Princess Margaret if I ever put on a dark wig. So, I hardly used any make-up playing the Queen – just a wig and that was basically it. Then, of course Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great, we only have their portraits. So, in a way, you’ve got more leeway there.
Looking at the films you’ve done in recent years – I want to say “frivolous” …
I would say frivolous.
… after that frivolity did you want to stretch your acting muscles with this?
No, I mean, my background is in classical theatre. So, I took myself frightfully seriously as a young actress and I still do, quite honestly. The Fast and Furious and Shazam! movies are incredibly fun to do but my heart is really in the more serious subjects to explore and reveal. That’s the role of drama. Of course, it can be entertaining, and it’s great to entertain, but it’s also great to move, reveal, to do the things that drama is capable of.
Golda opens at cinemas on May 2.
