Helen Mirren and the impostor syndrome

Would you ever think that a woman capable of chasing a bear from her garden could be afraid of something? No, especially if the woman in question is Helen Mirren76, actress awarded for her films and also appreciated by Queen Elizabethwhich granted her the title of Dame, the female equivalent of Sir.

The video of the bear attempting to enter the house on his ranch in Nevada is visible on Instagram. The fears, on the other hand, derive from the sense of inadequacy that Helen Mirren still feels, after more than 50 years of an esteemed career. Interviewed by You Magazinethe actress admitted that she still has many self-doubtto be constantly in the impostor syndromewhich makes her feel as if all her successes are undeserved: «I still see myself as I did at 20, 30 and 40. Fought, ambitious, frustrated and hypercritical with myself. I live with an annoying thought that makes me say: “My God, now they find me. This time she’s gone, but next time I won’t be able to get away with it. ‘

Helen Mirren, born in Hammersmith, London, daughter of an exiled Russian aristocrat (Mironoff is in fact his real surname) adapted to be a taxi driver and a working class woman Londoner, he began acting in the theater as a teenager. She has been married since 1997 to director Taylor Hackford, whom she met on the set of the film The sun at midnight. They are almost always away on business, and it is perhaps the secret of their successful marriage. “I think that’s why we’re still together. Since we have been apart for a long time, we are always happy to see each other ».

They have no children together, but the husband has two from a previous union. Helen Mirren was one for them strange mother: «I’m not at all authoritarian. I never tell people what to do. When our cohabitation began, Taylor’s children were 14 and 6 years old. I never told them to put their bedrooms in order, to eat everything they had on their plate. I never gave orders as to what they should do. I just can’t. For three years I tried to be a teacher, but I was really hopeless. Colleagues, hearing the din coming from my class, came in and said: “What’s going on here?”. Chaos reigned. I couldn’t even say: ‘Sit down and open the book on page three’ ».

The bear who tried to get into the house would not agree: Helen Mirren knows how to be obeyed. Surely the group of percussionists who was performing in the street, in front of the theater where the actress was engaged in the show, thinks so too. The Audience. Disturbed by the din, she took to the street wearing a wig and stage clothes to ask for silence, and was promptly obeyed. And even if she says she doesn’t deserve it, next week she’ll get yet another accolade, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Screen Actors Guild. “You can never be absolutely sure that you are good at what you do. It’s not like being a doctor or a surgeon or a gardener or an architect, you can’t look at your work and say, “Ah yes, I did well”. Our job is a much more elusive thing. ”

Perhaps she escapes herself, but to all the others her great skill is evident.