FIT FOR A QUEEN AN ACTRESS WITH A PENCHANT FOR ICONOCLASM TRIES TRADITION ON FOR SIZE -- TWICE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Royalty, royalty, royalty.

One formidable actress, Helen Mirren, has played two of Britain's most imposing monarchs, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II, in successive productions.

Mirren has just won her second Emmy Award for that first role in the eponymous TV miniseries. And she's a likely Oscar candidate for her portrayal of the current sovereign in ``The Queen,'' which hits U.S. theaters on Friday.

She's already taken the Venice Film Festival's best actress prize for it, and winning the other big Hollywood race would be mighty extraordinary indeed.

Not that Mirren quite thinks about it in that way.

``It's huge, absolutely,'' the actress acknowledges. ``It's an incredible honor in terms of your work as an actress to be able to play those two queens. Literally back-to-back, too. I did one, had like a two-week break, then started the second one.''

Renegade actress

For much of her career, though, Mirren has been attracted to what might be called outlaw projects. Though classically trained by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Mirren has often gone for shocking filmed work -- insurgent art flicks by the likes of Ken Russell (``Savage Messiah''), Lindsay Anderson (``O Lucky Man'') and Peter Greenaway (``The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover''); gritty crime dramas such as ``The Long Good Friday'' and her tough-minded ``Prime Suspect'' series, the final run of which hits PBS in November; even the kitsch historical porn ``Caligula.''

And she was known for doffing her clothes in many of them. As late as 2003, Mirren took it all off in ``Calendar Girls.'' And earlier this year, the 61-year-old actress co-starred in the cross-generational, semi-incestuous assassins romance ``Shadowboxer.'' Even her Emmy acceptance speech caused a stir when she jauntily acknowledged tripping on her way to the podium with a vulgar English phrase that technically violated FCC obscenity rules.

``I'm getting less radical as I get older,'' Mirren, elegant and alluring in a clingy low-cut blouse and fluffy tan skirt, says in a believe-it-or-don't manner. ``But that's the natural evolution, you know.''

Indeed, Mirren was even dubbed a dame of the British Empire a few years back. But a royalist she's never been.

Not a royalist

``I was brought up a republican, very, very against the whole concept of monarchy,'' Mirren says. ``I guess I was critical of the royals for many, many years. So it's not like I have a natural tendency toward the kind of groveling sycophancy that surrounds the monarchy often, and I do hate it. They are given so much more than the rest of us. But on the other hand, they're criticized more than the rest of us.''

That skeptical sympathy is what makes ``The Queen,'' and Mirren's humanizing performance in it, so remarkable. Set during the first week of September 1997 immediately following the death of Princess Diana, the movie persuasively takes us inside Elizabeth's homes in Scotland and London, as well as new Prime Minister Tony Blair's 10 Downing Street residence. Blair (Michael Sheen) struggles to convince the aloof royals to leave their summer castle in Balmoral, Scotland, and address the thousands of mourners filling the streets of the capital. Bearing no love for her ex-daughter-in-law, Elizabeth refuses for days to break long-standing protocol and publicly display emotion.

A daunting prospect

Directed by Stephen Frears (``My Beautiful Laundrette,'' ``The Grifters,'' ``Dangerous Liaisons'') and written by Peter Morgan, who with Frears had made a well-received TV movie about Blair's rise to power, ``The Queen'' both impressed and frightened Mirren to such an extent that she just had to do it.

``I was terrified,'' she admits. ``I was really scared, because you can't win when you're playing a real-life part that everybody is so familiar with. It's like playing Elvis or something; the look, the sound, the way they move, everything is so familiar. It's terrifying because you don't know if you're going to get all of that stuff right or not. You don't know if you're going to be capable of that side of the performance, but you know that you'll never be as good as the real thing ...

``Also, obviously, I am British and I live in Britain, where the royal family are loved and respected and vilified and criticized and all of that,'' adds Mirren, who also spends a good portion of her time in L.A. with her American husband, ``Ray'' director Taylor Hackford.

``So you know you're walking into a hornet's nest to even approach the subject at all. So, there were a lot of things to be nervous about. ``But I thought the script was great. Peter Morgan made it funny but sensitive; it was interesting, it was idiosyncratic, it wasn't a cheap shot.''

Although she didn't have much time between Queen Elizabeth productions, Mirren still managed to prepare extensively for the movie role. She worked hard with a dialect coach to nail Elizabeth II's distinctive, well, Queen's English. She read voraciously about the current monarch. And she watched as much footage of the queen as she could.

Instructive, if not exactly revealing.

Just like you and me?

``You can look at all the film in the world on the queen, and she -- like the rest of us -- gets paralyzed with self-consciousness if the camera is on her,'' Mirren observes. ``She's not being herself at all, so you can't really look behind that curtain of public face. There are different levels of it, but to really get into the private person, there was only one little, tiny piece of film where you suddenly saw the real Elizabeth pop out. It was when she was watching a horse race, and she gets very excited because her horse is winning. She just becomes like an excited young girl -- and she's in her 50s.

``And her mother, who has this very dry sense of humor, is there and just says, `Yes, the drama of it all.' It's a beautiful little moment. But of all the film I watched, that's the only time you say that that's an absolutely genuine thing.''

Frears, who has a long list of movies that criticize aspects of the British establishment, says he thinks the idea of the film is controversial. ``The truth is, I don't think it says anything that everybody doesn't think, in a way. I hope the film is fair-minded. In a way, the most shocking thing is that it treats the queen like a woman, and no one's ever really done that before,'' he says.

``You behave better than you normally do,'' Frears adds of making a movie about real, living people. ``You sort of suspend your prejudices. You somehow have to be seen to be being reasonable. You have to give each character a chance to defend themselves, and you have to try to treat them with some sort of respect.''

``I would hate for it to be hurtful,'' Mirren says in almost hushed sincerity. ``I tried very, very hard not to make it hurtful. Because, I think, you're so vulnerable, aren't you? You're out there and anyone can take a shot at you, and there is nothing you can do about it but stand there and be shot at. I would hate to be one of those people taking a shot. I hope they don't feel that.''

Royal treatment

As for her own rising status, Mirren doesn't really get it.

``You know, I forget I'm a dame, honestly,'' says Mirren, whose grandfather was a Russian aristocrat. ``It always takes me by surprise. I never get called `Dame,' except on British Airways. Otherwise, I slightly keep it at an arm's distance, although I am very proud to be one.''

And those Hollywood awards?

``They're funny, aren't they? One's very schizophrenic about all awards, really, because half of you takes it incredibly too seriously and then the other half of you doesn't take it nearly seriously enough. But, you know, let the chips fall where they may. And it's always great to be recognized, but then it's like this wave that passes over you and then it's gone, and you're like the same old person afterward that you were before.''

Bob Strauss, (818)-713-3670

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A royal encounter

Mirren met Queen Elizabeth once. Her knighthood was actually bestowed by Prince Charles, whom she quite genuinely respects. But his mum seemed nice.

``I'm sure she wouldn't remotely remember, but I met her very briefly at a polo match,'' Mirren recalls. ``I was invited to come into the royal tent for tea, which was a great honor. And there she was. And I was so lucky, I think, because she was in the milieu that she loves and she's the most comfortable in, which is around horses. And as everyone says, when you meet her in a more relaxed situation, she sparkles, she's charming. And I was absolutely charmed.''

Will a similar sentiment emanate from Buckingham Palace when -- or if -- the queen ever sees ``The Queen''?

Not likely.

-- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Her Majesty

Film royalty Helen Mirren brings a regal bearing to her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II

(2 -- 3) no caption (Helen Mirren)

(4) ``I would hate for it to be hurtful,'' Mirren says about portraying Elizabeth II in ``The Queen.''

Box:

A royal encounter (see text)