Award-winning actress, producer, and director Helen Mirren has been a goddess of the film industry spanning seven decades after her role as Hermia in the 1968 classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream gave her the light to shine. Playing Hespara in Shazam! Fury of the Gods is such a fitting role for her, demanding respect from the cast and crew, which is why her need to hide that she had broken her finger is such a surprise.
The daughter of Atlas, Hespara is a demigod who comes to earth with her sisters, Anthea and Kalypso, to get their powers back from Shazam. Having played Queenie in a few Fast & Furious films as well as the Queen herself in The Queen, she holds official royalty status since being appointed to the rank of Dame for services in drama in 2003. Her elevation to Goddess was merely a matter of time, but hysterically, she had little idea what Shazam! Fury of the Gods was even about.
In the superhero film industry, Helen Mirren explained in an exclusive with Entertainment Tonight, “When you’re in that stunt world, the stunt people are so brave, and you want to be accepted by them.” She went on, “I’m sucking up to the stunt people.”
Rachel Zegler – who plays the role of Anthea – was also there for the interview as she chimed in with a laugh, “They’re the popular kids.”
“They were the cool kids, exactly,” Mirren joined to confirm, “I wanted to be accepted by them so I was not going to complain about my finger.”
To add more insight into the struggles of filming the sequel to Shazam, Mirren told a humorous story in her appearance on The Graham Norton Show about how heavy the costumes were. Veteran actress Lucy Liu was also part of the cast, playing the role of the other sister Kalypso, who said after just the first day of shooting, “They’re trying to kill us.”
Some real work went into the making of the film, which release in theaters on Mar. 17, 2023.
Published: Mar 10, 2023 11:22 am