Russell Brand and Helen Mirren: Arthur and "The Queen"

Before you were born, there was a very funny movie called Arthur about a very eccentric, rich man who had a good heart but had become too attached to his money. Of course, true love and the advice of a wonderful personal servant, turns him around.

Arthur is very child-like so who better to play him in a modern re-make than wacky, witty Russell Brand? Who better for the loving, stiff upper lip, Brit servant, turned nanny in this version, than wonderful Brit actress Helen Mirren? 

We are with the duo in Beverly Hills learning just how fun and silly life on the set must have been for them. We’re talking love, castles and handprints on Hollywood Blvd. Check it out.

TeenHollywood: Ms. Mirren, why did you choose this role as the nanny?
 
Helen Mirren: I did it because I met Russell and I sat on a sofa opposite him for a couple of hours and he just blew me away. I kind of worked with him on The Tempest, but not a lot, but we hadn’t really spent time together. Russell told me about this film and he totally seduced me, the way he does, you know.

I defy any male, female or child to spend two hours with Russell and not be completely charmed and just say: “Yeah, fine. I will do whatever you want.” [Russell is beaming].

TeenHollywood: You haven’t really done a comedy film before, right?

Helen:  (Laughs) Well, it was an education for me as much as an education I was trying to give to the character but mostly I was the one who was learning stuff. I learnt so many things. I’ve never done a film that is called ‘a comedy’ before. So it was one of the reasons why I wanted to do the film and I was very lucky that I was working with such brilliantly experienced people in the world of comedy.  So it was my education.
 
TeenHollywood: Russell, you’ve talked about your own history of addiction and how that helped you play Arthur, who has a big drinking problem. Can you talk about that a bit?

Russell Brand: Yes, I’m such a thorough actor that I did two decades of research just to make sure it was a hundred per cent right.  The difference of course is that Arthur is a fictional alcoholic and has a much more latitude for clowning and fun and often his adventures don’t lead to broken glass and howling women. Although he is of course arrested at the beginning of the film.

It was very important that we established a context where the alcoholism was humorous and good fun, but was not irresponsibly portrayed. This is 2011 and it is important to see a resolution to the problem of alcoholism and that’s one of the aspects as a recovering alcoholic as myself, I was particularly happy with how that was rendered.

TeenHollywood:  In a way, Arthur is saved by love. Can you relate to that? You are married to a gorgeous, talented woman (Katy Perry).

Russell: This is why this film resonated so strongly with me and why I’m so happy with it. My life has been changed by falling in love, so I know that whilst that is a romantic idea and in this case fictional, it’s something that has happened to me. That’s why I’m so enamored of this story.

TeenHollywood: Greta Gerwig is who you fall in love with in the film. How did you just click with her? Was it in auditions?  

Russell: That happened very naturally. We saw loads of different actresses which was alright but because, of course, I was on the way to getting married then, I couldn’t really enjoy it like in the good old days where auditions had a rather primal quality.  We did the audition with Greta and afterwards I was sitting quietly, it must have been the last casting of the day and I was all quiet and Jason (Winer his director) asked me what the matter was. I said “I feel sad now that she’s gone.” It was because I had enjoyed playing with her so much.

She had such a brilliant imagination and is a great improviser and has a wonderful understanding of comedy and she has a wide range of ideas with peculiar choices but good peculiar in a magical way.

TeenHollywood: Let’s get back to you saying that you changed when you fell in love with Katy. Elaborate, please?

Russell: Like in Arthur, I think love has an incredibly transformative quality. I think the first thing you do when you fall in love is that you recognize that you’re not the most important person in the world and your focus becomes another person.  The reason why the film resonated with me is because I think Arthur is a person without direction and love gives him that.

TeenHollywood: Russell, what was it like wearing a real Batman suit and cruising in the real batmobile?

Russell: The actual car is not as interesting on the interior. The inside was boring.  It was a bit scruffy in there. I was in the Batmobile with actor Luis Guzman and he’s a brilliant actor but he says unusual stuff like he would say: “Imagine when the roof of the Batmobile opens that we are not on the set anymore and we have gone back to Caveman days.” And they would be like: “Action!” And I’m like: “Uh, What???” It would be like ideological farts in the car. But I enjoyed wearing the suit because it had Clooney musk in it and it had the pheromones of George Clooney and I’d like to think that I may have absorbed them.

TeenHollywood: Helen you get to punch Russell in the film. How fun was that?  

Helen:  Punching Russell was great, but the best thing was being taught how to punch by (famous boxer) Evander Holyfield who was my personal trainer on the set as well. I went up to him and he’s such a gentleman. But you know he is the champ and he is a big guy and quite scary and he was very quiet and he was on the set in the corner. So I went up to him and said: “Evander, I’ve got to punch Russell, would you show me how to do it please?” He said: “Sure.” And he gave me a little training.  

TeenHollywood: I loved the scene in Grand Central Station where you and your love are just there alone for the evening in this big cavernous space. Was that fun in real life?

Russell: Yes. They took us on a special tour and they showed us places where you’re not meant to go.  There are secret tunnels and stuff like that. There’s a secret staircase which is underneath the clock.

TeenHollywood: At one point, you have to run around in your underwear. Are you comfortable with that?  

Russell: I felt very shy and embarrassed about it as a matter of fact, but they were such lovely underpants that I was kind of grateful. They were custom made.
 
TeenHollywood: Both of you, what is the most indulgent, extravagant, Arthur-style purchase you have made?

Helen: A castle in Puglia. My husband and I bought a castle in southern Italy. It’s like turning on the taps full and money just pours out into the desert. It’s not finished. It will be beautiful.  It’s not really a castle, it’s a farm house.  It’s got a little hole that you can pour boiling oil out of. Puglia was being invaded all the time, so it’s a fortified farm house.
 
Russell Brand: Nothing. I am a simple man.
 
TeenHollywood: Yeah. Somehow we don’t believe that. Okay, then what do you say to people who might not have a lot of money who are going to put out quite a bit to see this movie?

Russell: Arthur has everything. He has all the money in the world, yet he is lonely, yet he is unhappy. I grew up poor, I didn’t have any money, now I have some money, the greatest poverty one can have is to be poor in one’s heart and through falling in love he is truly happy. He discovers purpose. All of us know that money is transient. Its pleasures are illusory.

The happiest moments in our life are not: “Oh I got a new hat or a wonderful silvery object,” but it’s when you connect with another human being.  If you [pay for our movie] you are purchasing dreams with that money.  Plus you can watch our movie, then sneak in and watch another one, just stay in the corridor.  But pay for our one.

Helen: [laughs] I also think it’s a fantasy we all have.  What would we do if we had a billion dollars? That’s why when the lottery gets really big, up to 40 or 50 million dollars, I go out and buy a ticket! Because maybe I will win!
 
Russell: And buy another castle? “That castle’s ruined. I need another castle. It’s a shi*t hole!”
 
Helen: [laughing] No, no.  But you fantasize about what it would be like to have millions and millions of dollars and we all do that and here we can see what happens when you have millions of dollars.  So I think it’s a fantasy that we all carry within us. We all are dreamers.
 
TeenHollywood: Helen your hand and footprints will soon be on Hollywood Blvd. on the Walk of Fame. How do you feel about that?

Helen: Gosh, I feel so really honored. When I first came to Hollywood many years ago, the first place you want to go is Hollywood Blvd. and Grauman’s [now Mann’s] Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. You go and you look at Joan Crawford’s hands and feet and the history of American filmmaking is encapsulated in that one little area.  

And that street to me has always been the street of dreams and personally I’m thrilled that the Oscars are back on Hollywood Blvd.  To find, so many years later, that my hands and feet are going to be there, I’m blown away by it.  Becoming a Dame, fantastic. Winning an Oscar, amazing.  Hands and feet, incredible!
 
TeenHollywood: Russell, you and Helen have a great chemistry in your scenes. Were you the same behind the scenes?

Helen: He was in his trailer all the time and when he did come out, he was always surrounded by minders. He wouldn’t speak to anyone.
 
Russell: People will write that now! You vicious queen! I’m going to go down bloody Hollywood Blvd. and fill your handprints in.
 
Helen: [laughing] Okay, that was completely untrue. 

Russell: We had a wonderful relationship. I’m a bit in love with Helen. I was very excited about the possibility of working for her, er, I mean with her. That’s a weird Freudian slip isn’t it?
 
Helen:  I like that one. It was a very loving environment and a funny environment.
  
TeenHollywood: Russell, now that you are happily married do you have any advice for Prince William and his Kate?
 
Russell: I don’t go around giving advice to the British royalty.  They will chop your head off!