西部落：“英女皇”海伦米林访谈-1

Helen Mirren pens memoir¹

The Oscar winning actress talks about her new book “In the Frame,” her mother and what a palm reader predicted for her

Helen Mirren took Hollywood by storm when she took on an Emmy Award, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award all in one year. The international super star took on the challenge of playing two of Britain’s most iconic figures, Elisabeth I and Elisabeth II. And now the 62-year-old is taking on the past again, telling her own life story. Helen Mirren’s book is In the Frame, My Life in Words and Pictures.

Helen, good morning to you.

Good morning.

And I have to say, first of I learned in the book right away, Helen Mirren is not your real name.

Well, actually it is my real name. But, em, you know, well, I was born with the name of Mironov. So, officially I guess I would be Mironov now, because my father was born in Russia.

Which I didn’t realize (is) your paternal² side, your grandfather actually was in the military during the Tsar. He came to England to purchase arms and live. (Absolutely) Russian Revolution breaks out; he’s suddenly a refugee and your dad was born in England.

Yes, well, no, my dad was actually..(was already born) was born in Russia. But he came at the age of two or three with my grandparents to England. So absolutely I’m half Russian, I would say it’s, my bottom half is Russian. Ha

Why the bottom half?

Well, you know, good old Russian peasants stopped down there, somewhere.

Talk to me about your childhood, because your dad was a cab driver (Yes) and your mom was sort of a reluctant homemaker who wanted more for her girls.

Yes, my mom was, is a very early feminist³ I guess. You know. The, you know, the issue of marriage and never came in up in our family. You know. "Oh, don’t worry, darling, you’ll get married and a man will take care of you." That was never promoted as a, as a sort of life choice. Our life choice was always, you must make your own money, you must have your own money, you must be economically independent of any one. And where my mom got that from, I don't know, but, yes, I think she was a reluctant mother. She was a great mom and she was fun, and you know, she cooked if you think she didn’t get up in the morning. But she was a great mother, but I don’t know if she really, really wanted to be a mother. I think a lot of women don’t actually.

So, where did your love of acting⁴ come from?

I don’t, I don’t know. I mean, er, I think a perfect combination of my parents. My, certainly one of my ancestors in Russia started one of the earliest theaters in Russia. It was a surf theater on Neri state. That was sort of like 300 hundred years ago. Em, so I had that in on my father side, or on my mother side, she was just a huge drama queen. So, you know.

And yet, you write in your book: "Even now my relationship with the audience is ambivalent⁵. I’m vaguely⁶ embarrassed by the idea of being looked at."

Yes, yes, I just don't. Not all liked that to be looked at at all. They act sort of disappearance⁷ to something. And I think that is sort of the case…

1 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

2 paternal   

adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的

参考例句：

• I was brought up by my paternal aunt.我是姑姑扶养大的。
• My father wrote me a letter full of his paternal love for me.我父亲给我写了一封充满父爱的信。

3 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 ambivalent   

adj.含糊不定的；(态度等)矛盾的

参考例句：

• She remained ambivalent about her marriage.她对于自己的婚事仍然拿不定主意。
• Although she professed fear of the Russians,she seemed to have ambivalent feelings toward Philby himself.虽然她承认害怕俄国人，然而她似乎对菲尔比本人有一种矛盾的感情。

6 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

7 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。