Dame Helen Mirren: Starting a new project is nerve-racking

Dame Helen Mirren: Starting a new project is nerve-racking Dame Helen Mirren has confessed that she still feels anxious whenever she begins a new role. 23 August 2025 Dame Helen Mirren finds starting a new job to be a "nerve-racking" experience. Dame Helen Mirren still suffers from self-doubts The 80-year-old actress has enjoyed huge success in her career, starring on stage and screen for more than six decades - but Helen still feels anxious whenever she begins a new role. She told People: "I think it's because every project that you go into is an unknown. "And each time you enter into a new project, you never know how it's going to be or how the people are going to be and whether the chemistry will be good or a disaster. So stepping into a project is nerve-racking." Helen acknowledges that every role is a new and unique challenge. The veteran actress explained: "Every single one is completely different and has a different energy and a different requirement, you never know if you're going to sort of step up or not." And despite her past successes, Helen still finds herself feeling "insecure". She shared: "A lot of it is pretense, of course, sort of acting. You feel insecure, but you pretend you don't. And we all do it, don't we? "Walking into a party or walking into a job interview or whatever it is you're having to deal with. We all have sort of gird our loins for want of a better word." Meanwhile, Helen recently suggested that she could have been a competitive racing driver. The award-winning actress is "foolishly vain" about her skills behind the wheel and is convinced that if she hadn't had such a successful screen career, she'd have done just as well on the race track. She told People: "I'm rather foolishly vain about my driving. I'm sure I could have been a racing car driver." Although Helen - who is married to director Taylor Hackford - turned 80 last month, she doesn't "recognise" birthdays because "life rolls on" and she isn't interested in extravagant celebrations. The film star said: "Honestly, I don't celebrate birthdays. I don't recognise them because life just rolls on. "I expect to be very, very nicely treated on my birthday. That's all I want. Cup of tea in bed in the morning."