2014 Fellowship: Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, world-renowned actress, accepted BAFTA’s 2014 Academy Fellowship at the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony.

Mirren won the Award for her exceptional contribution to film, which includes her work on The Queen, Prime Suspect and Calendar Girls.

Her first BAFTA nomination was exactly 30 years ago, for her role as a young widow in Cal, set during the Irish Troubles of the early 1980s. Since then she’s been nominated for (and won) several BAFTA’s including for her portrayal of the uncompromising DCI Jane Tennison in ITV’s Prime Suspect.

“This is the greatest professional honour I can imagine, certainly one I never dreamt of as a schoolgirl in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex,” says Mirren.

As well as receiving the award BAFTA and Hackett (official menswear partner to the 2014 Film Awards) took the opportunity to celebrate Mirren’s career and achievements with a celebratory lunch held at The Savoy in London. This was attended by Mirren herself as well as Jeremy Irons, Graham McPherson (Suggs) and Stephen Frears.

Mirren’s career spans TV, film and theatre. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the mid-1960s, she brought to life both classic and modern parts.

She describes her move to film as “a slow burn” which started with work as an extra. She appeared in films from innovative directors like Lindsay Anderson, Micheal Powell and Ken Russell throughout the sixties and seventies. Her breakout role came alongside Bob Hoskins in 1980’s gritty crime thriller, The Long Good Friday.

“When I was young, the film set was an incredibly masculine place in what was still a very sexist world,” she says.

“For a woman walking onto sets then, it was a very lonely business and you had somehow to negotiate your way through it.”

In the nineties, six series of Prime Suspect took her to a wider TV audience while her leading role in The Queen cemented her global popularity. She put her crown back on last year to become the monarch once more in Peter Morgan’s play, The Audience.

“I am a complete Elizabethan,” she says.

“My whole life will, in a sense, have been defined by being alive during her reign. Although I hope my whole career won’t also be defined by playing her, it’s still an amazing thing to me that I’ve been able to creatively engage with it.”

On Saturday 15 February 2014, BAFTA and Hackett (official menswear partner to the 2014 Film Awards) took the opportunity to celebrate the career and achievements of 2014 Academy Fellow Helen Mirren. A very special celebratory lunch was held at The Savoy in London and was attended by Mirren herself as well as Jeremy Irons, Graham McPherson (Suggs) and Stephen Frears.

Awarded every year by the Academy, the BAFTA Fellowship is the highest accolade given to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or TV.

Previous Fellows include Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave.

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV explore our BAFTA Award Stories section.