Helen Mirren was in Sicily this week to receive a Taormina Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. Funny, when we want to give people an LMO Lifetime Achievement Award, and we invite them to receive it in either Memphis or Milton Keynes, their people go strangely silent. While she was there, she was, of course, asked about MobLand.
The actress was characteristically open and blunt when asked about her relationship with her MobLand co-star Tom Hardy. Stories swirled last month that he was not going to be returning for the third season due to some on-set issues.
The first raft of stories seemed to paint Hardy as being difficult. Then the alternative viewpoint started to come out that there were some problems with creatives being absent and scripts arriving late. Reports emerged that the actor was going to be fired due to unprofessional behaviour on set, and counter reports said there were going to be some talks to resolve issues.
Mirren publicly expressed support for Hardy on Instagram, adding fuel to the fire around the viewpoint that he wasn’t entirely at fault. In Sicily, she was asked by Variety whether she would continue to work with Hardy:
“Absolutely. In a f–king heartbeat. I love Tom, I think he’s the most amazing actor. Different actors have different processes. I’ve learnt over the years that some people get to things faster. As long as what’s on the screen is fantastic, I’m totally chilled with however someone gets there. Tom is a very special person. I think he’s absolutely remarkable. My support of him is genuine and heartfelt.”
Mirren also went on to say that she’s up for a third season and hopes it happens with the cast intact:
“When you have powerful artistic people working together, the creative process is challenging. People will get their knickers in a twist as we say. We will go forward, absolutely, and it will be even better.”
Mirren recently filmed Anton Corbjin’s A Talent for Murder, a film adaptation of the stage play Switzerland, in which she plays Ripley author Patricia Highsmith.
