PASADENA, Calif. — Taking on the iconic role of Queen Elizabeth I left Helen Mirren feeling more than a bit uncomfortable at times. And not just because of the 16th-century wardrobe.
The two-part, four-hour drama "Elizabeth I" follows the title character through the last quarter century of her 44-year reign. It's framed by her relationships with the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley (Jeremy Irons), and his stepson, the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux (Hugh Dancy) — a man 33 years Elizabeth's junior.
Mirren said Dancy was "unbelievably generous and kind" while they were working together, but she was acutely aware that he's 30 to her 60. "He made me feel like a gorgeous young woman, as Essex did to Elizabeth. And I was blessed with an actor who had the generosity to do that.
"But the scene when we were romping around on the cushions and you were pretending to be excited about it, with a terrible old woman underneath you — I've never been so mortified."
"I didn't think of it that way," Dancy assured her. "I didn't have so much trouble with that scene."
As difficult as it might have been, Mirren turns in a stunning performance in "Elizabeth I," a gorgeous TV movie that captures the queen as a both a woman and a powerful leader who helped turn the tide of history. "It is one of the great female roles ever, and I was very conscious of that as I was playing it," Mirren said.
"It was brutally hard work. But every day I thanked the gods of my particular profession that I'd been given the opportunity to play this role, this character."
After the tumultuous reigns of her father (Henry VIII) and sister ("bloody" Mary), Elizabeth inherited a realm still torn by religious strife. She's presented with the problem of Mary Queen of Scots and how to deal with that threat to her reign. Her personal life was a matter of state affairs — by marrying no one, she kept alive the possibility of marrying various foreign kings.
"Elizabeth I" takes the position that Leicester was the love of her life but they could not marry — although she's suspected of complicity when his wife is killed in an accident.
In Part 1, Elizabeth is courted by (and courts) a French prince, complicating her personal and regal lives. And there's the threat of an invasion by Spain.
Part 2 concentrates on her relationship with Essex, whom she loves but who presents a threat to her throne.
"My desire was to make it a mercurial character, rather than a strong, heavy — 'I'm the Queen and I'm grumpily going about my business, and you will do this and you will do that,' " Mirren said. "She was an incredibly passionate woman — a woman who could be so angry that she literally fainted with anger, and at the same time who could laugh so hard, especially at vulgar comedy, that she literally fell off her chair.
"She was a woman of extremes. And I wanted to create, rather than a figure made in stone with the white makeup and the wig and the big dress, someone who lived and breathed and fell absurdly, inappropriately in love, and realized her mistake but couldn't stop herself.
"It's such a great historical character — one that we're all somehow familiar with, and yet none of us really know. I would say the greatest challenge was to try and bring the audience into the inner life of Elizabeth. And I know something that (director) Tom (Hooper) and (screenwriter) Nigel (Williams), I think, achieved particularly well was to get into the inner workings of Elizabeth, rather than feeling that one is just watching a beautiful pageant."
"Elizabeth I" goes to great lengths for historical accuracy — even rebuilding the queen's Palace of Whitefield (which burned in the 17th century) on location in Lithuania. But it does take some liberties, perhaps most notable in a face-to-face meeting between Elizabeth and Mary, which historians say never happened.
"But they did correspond, and we have their correspondence," said screenwriter Nigel Williams, who opted for historical inaccuracy instead of showing the two at their writing desks. "Sometimes the essence of historical truth can be got by circumventing the obvious detail."
Mary's execution is, however, historically accurate — her head didn't drop with the first blow from the executioner. (While this is on HBO, however, there is virtually no adult language or sexual content. There is, however, some ghastly — albeit historically accurate — re-creations of execution and torture.)
"There was a huge amount of attention to historical detail in the script, in the words," Mirren said. "A lot of the words that I actually speak in the script are in fact Elizabeth's words. And Nigel did, I think, a most brilliant job of writing a text within which you can drop real Elizabeth language and it not stick out like a sore thumb."
And Mirren joins a long list of actresses who have played Elizabeth I — a list that includes Judith Anderson, Cate Blanchett, Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson and Jean Simmons. "Well, obviously, the fact that it's been played so brilliantly before by other great actresses is always a bit of a challenge," Mirren said. "But it's a character of such depth and breadth that it can be assailed time and time again by many different people. And always, hopefully, each actress, as they come to it, can give it something different."
Her favorite? Well, you'd probably never guess, because it was in a comedy. "Well, actually my favorite Elizabeth was Miranda Richardson's," Mirren said. "And it's one Americans are not so familiar with, in 'Black Adder.' I just love Miranda's. I thought, though it was very far from the truth, there was something in there that was very true to Elizabeth."
If you watch
What: "Elizabeth I"
Channel: HBO
When: Part 1 premieres Saturday at 9 p.m.; Part 2 premieres Monday at 9 p.m. (Check cable/satellite listings.)
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com