Helen Mirren on ‘MobLand,’ ‘1923,’ and the Met Gala

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“To be entertained is a great thing, isn’t it?” This is Helen Mirren talking about MobLand, the highly entertaining gangster series currently streaming on Paramount+. Created by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy) and directed, in part, by Guy Ritchie, the London-set show has been steadily gaining buzz since its debut in late March, despite a few disapproving reviews (ignore those critics; it’s a blast). The gonzo seventh episode aired last night, and I’m hooked—which is not just down to Mirren, who plays the ruthless Maeve Harrigan. There’s also Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt: an incredible ensemble cast. But Mirren is something special; a cherished actress playing delightfully against type. Martini in hand, hair down, some animal print ensemble on, her Maeve is a psychopath, goading her husband Conrad (Brosnan) to greater acts of violence and mayhem. In her long, illustrious career, Mirren has never been so gloriously undignified.

Mirren, of course, first launched into superstardom thanks to another television role: that of DCI Jane Tennison in the incomparable Prime Suspect, the groundbreaking 1990s BBC procedural (all seven seasons of which are there for the taking on BritBox, if you’ve never had the pleasure). But it’s still remarkable to consider that her turn on MobLand follows hard on the heels of Mirren playing another indomitable matriarch, Cara Dutton, in Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel series 1923. We’re used to A-listers on television, I suppose, but it’s been a treat to have so much small-screen Mirren in our lives.

I asked her about both roles in a recent conversation conducted over Zoom. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Helen Mirren: They’re such different characters, Cara and Maeve—but I was kind of thrilled to be asked to be in MobLand, because, you know, it’s actually much more my world, much more up my alley, than 1923. ​​Don’t get me wrong, I loved doing 1923, and it’s always great to explore a world that you’re not familiar with, but MobLand is sort of more my kind of vibe, if you like. It’s London; it’s urban. And I’m a London girl at heart.

Vogue: Both are genre shows, which is sort of interesting for you: a Western and a gangster series…

Although both, as the modern world does, break the mold somewhat. It’s funny, the way human beings have always loved to be told a story. You know, it’s The Canterbury Tales and far beyond. I spent time doing experimental theater with Peter Brook—he’s passed away now, but he was the greatest 20th-century theater director, and recognized as such. 
We were traveling through Africa into these villages, where they had no concept of what theater was. They knew religious ritual, which was their version of theater, of people getting dressed up and dancing. And they had these traveling storytellers: balladeers, like medieval balladeers, who would ride from village to village to tell the story of what was happening back in the big city or, you know, the war that was happening over here, or the love affair that was going on, the illegitimate child that was being born or whatever. I think word went out that there was a bit of competition going on, this weird group of English people were arriving, performing these weird things. And so this balladeer arrived to sort of shut us up, all feathered and dressed up on a horse. And it was a theatrical performance, a storytelling. And so all I’m saying is that we’ve wanted to tell each other stories forever and, you know, MobLand, 1923, it’s just another version of that, really, of the balladeer riding into town on a horse, telling a story.

You’ve said about Cara Dutton, who’s your character in 1923, that complex female characters didn’t much exist when you were coming up. I wondered if you would say the same thing about Maeve Harrington in MobLand—and if there’s a kind of progress at work.

There’s massive progress at work, and it’s not just Maeve.
It’s all the other female characters in MobLand. You know, if MobLand had been made 20 years ago, none of those female characters would have existed. If you were lucky there’d be a pretty young girl who usually had to take her clothes off and have a sex scene with someone, and that was as far as you went with female characters. Even the great Sopranos, which is enormously respected by writers and actors alike—a truly great piece of storytelling, of television, of drama, on every level. But the female characters were…wives, you know? Girlfriends. The kind of agency that the female characters in MobLand have, all of them, not just Maeve, is great to see. And it’s great to be a part of it.

Mirren with Pierce Brosnan and Anson Boon in MobLand.

Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+

Maeve is well-written and complex, but she’s also totally amoral and cruel.

I didn’t know that, honestly! When I was asked to do it, I think I might have read the first episode—because it was being written, you know, as we went along. Those scripts arrived as we were shooting and: oh, my God, this happens, you know. Oh, shit. Which I love, incidentally. I love having to think on your feet and just be immediate, because to me, that’s more like life.

The closest I’ve ever played to Maeve is probably a sort of combination between Phaedra and Lady Macbeth. The sort of mad obsession of Phaedra and the ambition of Lady Macbeth, but both of those characters, in the end, do have a moral compass. They feel guilt. And Maeve feels no guilt. Guilt doesn’t even come into it. I guess she’s a psychopath. I guess that’s what she is. If one wants to go that route.

Is it fun playing someone so amoral?

I’ve always said that once you play someone who’s mad, you have an incredible freedom. Like, in the mad scene in Hamlet—because I’ve also played Ophelia—you can do anything. It gives you this sort of fabulous freedom. And likewise with Maeve, you know…I don’t drink a lot, but occasionally I have been very, very drunk. And being very, very drunk gives you this freedom. You don’t give a shit about anything or anyone. You just don’t care. And it’s lovely. You do pay the price for it the next morning. But at the moment, it’s great. And that’s sort of Maeve. She absolutely doesn’t give a shit. It was very liberating for me and also, weirdly, rather disturbingly, very comfortable. It was like getting into a warm bath when you’re a bit cold, like, Oh, I love this. This feels great.

You see it in her clothes, too. Her outfits are very leopard print-meets-leather.

You’re American, aren’t you, Taylor? So you don’t know what I mean by Essex?

I do know what you mean.

It’s like the Jersey shore. We didn’t want to go too Jersey shore. That, to me, is a bit of a cliché. You know, we could have gone quite far in that direction. So when I got the role, I immediately Googled “Mobland queen,” and this picture came up of a woman in Australia and she had white blonde hair—I thought, oh yeah, that’s it, that’s me—and she was all in black. And I thought, great, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m just going to always wear black, white hair. And I personally love an animal print.

What about the chemistry with Pierce Brosnan? You were in a movie with him a million years ago, The Long Good Friday.

Yes, but we were miles apart on that film. The first time I saw him was when I went to see the movie and even then I didn’t know it was Pierce Brosnan. I worked with Pierce again for the first time in all those years on The Thursday Murder Club, which is directed by Chris Columbus, and is coming very soon. We shot it before MobLand. So I became aware of what a fabulous guy he is. He was just fun and hardworking and prepared and enjoying it and calm and cool and everything.

With MobLand, he and I were sent the script at the same time. So we called each other: What do you think, Pierce? And we both came to the decision together, at the same time. Well, if you will do it, I’ll do it, kind of thing. So, you know, it was a sort of joint decision in a way.

Mirren as Cara Dutton in 1923.

Photo: Trae Patton/Paramount+

You also had great chemistry with your co-star Harrison Ford in 1923.

And the chemistry cannot happen without the guy being open and generous. It’s not always the way, you know. Often a male actor doesn’t really want to share the scene with you: He wants you to give to him, but he doesn’t want to give back to you, particularly. And with both of those guys, both Harrison and Pierce, they are absolutely giving, emotionally and professionally, on set; always on time, all the rest of it. And that’s the way chemistry works, is if you have that generosity of spirit.

Last question: We just had the Met Gala, and I know you went in 2015…

Oh, my God, the fabulous craziness of it. Walking through the museum with this parade of extraordinary creatures, like from another world, and then going into the dinner, beautifully decorated, these incredible flowers—there’s nothing like it. I think about what Anna said this year, about how amazing the American Black community has been in revolutionizing male formal attire, the way they’ve thrown all the rules out the window and just recreated it in this beautiful, elegant, but imaginative way. That was so great to see. It was really something. I mean, Colman Domingo and A$AP Rocky looked…amazing. Although I have to say, Zendaya took the prize. The beautiful tailored simplicity of what she was wearing, on that gorgeous body? She took the prize.