Helen Mirren Gives Shoutout To “My Tribe Of Actors’ At Jerusalem Film Festival As SAG-AFTRA Strike Hits: “Actors Are Wonderful People”
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Helen Mirren dedicated a Jerusalem Film Festival life-time achievement award to actors around the world on Thursday, just an hour before a looming SAG-AFTRA strike was made official.
The actress received the honorary prize ahead of the Israeli premiere of Guy Nattiv’s Golda as the festival’s opening film, in which she stars as iconic late stateswoman Golda Meir.
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“I would just like to say, I am a member of a tribe and members of my tribe can be found in Germany, in Belgium, America… they are Palestinians, they are Israelis, they are Africans,” she told the 6,000-strong crowd at the outdoor opening ceremony in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City walls.
“They are the tribe to whom I really want to dedicate this award and that is the tribe of actors. Actors are wonderful people.”
Mirren gave a special mention to the Israeli cast members on Golda who included Lior Ashkenazi as David ‘Dado’ Elazar and Rami Heuberger as Moshe Dayan.
“I was lucky enough to work with fantastic Israeli actors on Golda. I had the greatest of times with them because immediately I felt I belonged. I was with my tribe, so thank you to my wonderful tribe of actors all over the world, in every language there is.”
Mirren had spent the morning doing promotional duties on Golda with local outlets, but interviews were wrapped by 3pm local time (5am PT).
She did not talk directly about the looming strike at a press conference in the morning or in her comments at the opening ceremony, but her appearance ended an hour before the strike was officially declared.
Other honorees on Thursday included Oliver Stone as well as Belgian directorial duo Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. Further guests this year include directors Claire Denis and Florian Zeller who are on the jury.
The strike is expected to impact the film festival circuit as actors stop promotional and red carpet events as part of their industrial action.
With Mirren’s attendance done and dusted before the strike kicked off, disruption to the Jerusalem Film Festival will be minimal with few other big U.S. and UK acting names due to attend this year.
Mirren has long-standing ties with Israel having first visited the country in 1967 and spending a month working at the Kibbutz Ha’on at the foot of the Golan Heights.
She recounted how she had begun her stint at the kibbutz combing the grapes on the Golan Heights.
“This was just after the Six Day War so there were a few shells going off… When they realized this was a bit too dangerous for a ‘shiksa’ from London, they yanked me out of the grapevines and put me in the kitchen,” she said.
“Little did I think in that moment that one day I would be standing here in this beautiful, historic magical, difficult complex city of Jerusalem.”
Golda explores Meir’s life and legacy through the then Israeli prime minister’s controversial handling of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Israel was taken by surprise by a combined joint attack by Egypt and Syria to its southern and northern borders.
Mirren’s casting as Meir sparked controversy when UK actress Maureen Lipman publicly criticized the casting of a non-Jewish actress in the role.
Israelis appear to have enthusiastically embraced Mirren in the role, but the topic came up once again in the press conference earlier on Thursday.
Mirren, who deflected a similar question at the Berlinale in February to Nattiv, spoke-up this time.
“I adhere to both camps. At the same time as believing that anyone can play anything, I also believe that sometimes the absolute right person for a role is the very person who can profoundly understand the issues involved,” she said, referring to Troy Kotsur’s performance in Coda as an example of the latter.
“I’m personally ambivalent. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to inhabit Golda because it was just such an amazing place for me to be in this woman’s mind. It was an incredibly profound journey for me, and I’m very, very grateful for it but at the same time, my mind is open.”
The Jerusalem Film Festival runs from July 13 to 23.
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