Helen Mirren Says She’s Entering Her Villain Era

Dame Helen Mirren, whose career spans decades, tells Chloe Malle and Taylor Antrim on the latest episode of The Run‑Through that she finally feels ready to play more villainous parts. “I think it has to do with getting older,” she says. “When you’re older, if you’re a woman, you have to be an awful, ghastly person.” Her newest antagonist is the writer Patricia Highsmith in the film A Talent for Murder, directed by photographer‑turned‑filmmaker Anton Corbijn.

The movie, adapted from Joanna Murray‑Smith’s 2014 play Switzerland, imagines a fictional scene from the last chapter of Highsmith’s life. It places the author in a stark, brutalist house in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by pet snails, when a handsome young New York publisher, played by Alden Ehrenreich, arrives with the impossible request that she write another entry in her Ripley series.

Mirren first learned about Highsmith through her husband, director Taylor Hackford, and soon became a devotee of both the novelist’s books and the many film versions of her work. For the role, costume design was crucial. Highsmith was known for wearing masculine attire, having a short neck and a hunched posture, especially in her later years. “I asked the costume team to build up the shoulder pads,” Mirren explained, “and it gives her that sort of look that she’s about to pounce.”

Reflecting on the early days of her career, Mirren notes that the parts offered to women were often flat and uninteresting. “They really sucked,” she says, adding that the range of roles for women has improved dramatically. If she could speak to her younger self, she would advise, “be as rude as you possibly can.”

The conversation also drifted to Mirren’s recent red‑carpet ensembles, the “stripper” heels she bought on Hollywood Boulevard, and her hobby of designing and sewing her own clothing.