Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, Olivier, and Tony Award-winner Helen Mirren is set to add yet another trophy to her well-used mantle. The “Eye in the Sky” star will receive The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award, a press release has announced. The gala, set to be held April 30, 2018 at the Lincoln Center, will feature movie and interview clips with Mirren, whose career spans over 50 years.
According to the release, the event “will be attended by a host of notable presenters,” so it seems likely that some of Mirren’s co-stars and directors will be reflecting on her incredible body of work and her famous sense of humor.
Mirren’s career kicked off in 1967, when she began acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her many credits in film, TV, and the stage include “The Queen,” “Prime Suspect,” and “The Audience.”
“It is an honor and a pleasure for us to present Helen Mirren with our 45th Chaplin Award,” said Ann Tenenbaum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Board Chairman. “From housemaid to Queen and everything in between, Ms. Mirren has delivered masterful performances of complex characters, upending stereotype after stereotype along the way.”
Previous Chaplin Award honorees include Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, and Meryl Streep.
Earlier this year Mirren gave the commencement address at Tulane University. The “Woman in Gold” actress has been outspoken about gender inequality in Hollywood, but as she revealed at the event, she initially shied away from identifying as a feminist. “[I] believed in the obvious: that women were as capable and as energetic and as inspiring as men, but to join a movement called feminism just seemed too didactic, too political for me,” she explained. But she eventually had a change of heart. “I have come to understand that feminism is not an abstract idea but it’s a necessity if we — and really by ‘we,’ I mean you guys — are to move us forward and not backward into ignorance and fearful jealousy,” she told the attendees. “So now, I am a declared feminist and I would encourage you to be the same.”
Mirren will next be seen in “The Leisure Seeker,” a road trip comedy that follows a couple’s journey in their RV. The film hits theaters January 19, 2018.
