Dame Helen Mirren has had a long and fruitful career. The 69-year-old actress has starred in classic films like The Long Good Friday and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover; has had a range of television roles, from playing Ayn Rand to entering The Twilight Zone; and has performed in countless theater productions in London and on Broadway. Mirren has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards. But the one thing she hasn’t done, much to her regret, is take on Dominic Toretto in a balls-out street race for honor and probably tons of money.
In a conversation with Yahoo! Movies about her upcoming film Woman In Gold, Mirren revealed that she is still chasing her ultimate dream:
My great ambition is to be in a Fast And Furious movie. I so want to be a mad driver in a Fast And Furious movie. My claim to fame is I always do my own driving—I was on Top Gear, and I did [my lap] in a very good time. I keep putting it out there, and they never ask me. I [would] be in Fast And Furious 8. I have to say Vin Diesel is brilliant. I love Vin Diesel. He’s a great guy, smart—I love him. It’s partly because of him I’d like to be in one, but also the driving.
And so Mirren exclusively reads Stanislavsky and Car And Driver, hoping that someday, when the call comes, she can match Diesel’s performance and gearhead acumen. Maybe she works part-time at a body shop, fixing cars and running lines in a vague Italian American accent. “Brian, where’s Letty?,” she might practice from underneath a car. “Bri … Brian, where’s … where’s Letty? Oh bloody hell, that’s not right, Helen. Not right at all.”
Mirren also said that she’d be happy to do another Red film “because those are such fun to do.” Basically, people should stop offering her demure roles and let her drive a car out of the back of an airplane, like everyone else gets to do.
While we wait for that, the Mirren-less Furious 7 speeds recklessly into theaters on April 3.