Helen Mirren: Funny. Fabulous. Unfiltered.

MORE IN DEMAND THAN EVER AT 80, THE ACTRESS IS HAVING A BALL ‘LARKING ABOUT’ ON MULTIPLE PROJECTS, INCLUDING HER NEW MYSTERY ROMP THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB. JUST DON’T DARE CALL HER ‘FEISTY’!

- ERIC ANDERSSON

Over the course of her storied career, Helen Mirren has racked up an eclectic mix of honors. She’s a dame, a title bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. She’s an Academy Award winner, thanks to her portrayal of the aforementioned monarch in 2006’s The Queen. She’s also … a cocktail on offer at Pal’s Lounge, a New Orleans bar once owned by her late stepson. “The Helen F---in’ Mirren,” says the actress with a hearty laugh, repeating the NSFW moniker. Made with Darjeeling liqueur, Earl Grey tea, vodka, habanero and honey, the drink is an homage to the beloved Brit’s spicy side—which is on full display during an hour-long interview with People. She drops a few swear words, claims that her Oscar and SAG trophies (both “beautiful young men”) are having an affair and brags about her Formula 1-level skills behind the wheel. “I’m rather foolishly vain about my driving,” she says. “I’m sure I could have been a racing-car driver.”

At 80, Mirren—who has been married to Oscar-nominated Ray director Taylor Hackford, 80, for almost 28 years—is keeping her foot on the gas pedal in more ways than one. Over a six-month span in 2024 and 2025, she filmed a slew of projects, from the western series 1923 and the crime drama MobLand to the new Netflix mystery The Thursday Murder Club. “It was intense, but you just get into the rhythm of it,” says Mirren, who also appears in a cheeky Uber Eats commercial, which features her wondering about seeing her neighbor naked. “Sometimes you have what I call a bit of a ‘car crash of projects,’ and they all want to go at the same time.”

IN FULL SWING Mirren (on May 5 in L.A.'s Hollywood Hills) says she's "of course" having fun in her career: "I wouldn't do it otherwise."