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Helen Mirren is addressing criticism over her casting as former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the upcoming film Golda.
The Academy Award winner, 76, who is not Jewish, responded to Dame Maureen Lipman’s argument that “ethnicity should be prioritised” in roles like this, telling the Daily Mail: “It was certainly a question that I had, before I accepted the role.”
She acknowledged that Meir “is a very important person in Israeli history,” explaining that she raised the issue with Golda director Guy Nattiv.
“I said, ‘Look Guy, I’m not Jewish, and if you want to think about that, and decide to go in a different direction, no hard feelings. I will absolutely understand,'” Mirren recalled. “But he very much wanted me to play the role, and off we went.”
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Mirren’s interview comes after Lipman, 75, respectfully opposed the casting choice in a letter to The Guardian, asserting that a Jewish actress should play Meir, who was the first female head of the Jewish state’s government.
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“My opinion was that if the ethnicity or gender of the character drives the role then that ethnicity should be prioritised, as it is now with other minorities,” Lipman wrote, conceding that Mirren “is a great actress and very sexy in her eighth decade, which is important for playing Golda.”
“I do believe it is a discussion that has to be had – it’s utterly legitimate,” Mirren said in response, before posing the question: “You know, if someone who’s not Jewish can’t play Jewish, does someone who’s Jewish play someone who’s not Jewish?”
“There’s a lot of terrible unfairness in my profession,” Mirren added.
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The F9 actress also noted that she has no hard feelings against Lipman for raising the issue. “I very much respect Maureen,” she said. “And I love her as an actress, absolutely. I’d love to bump into her and sit and have a cup of tea and talk about it.”
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“My only real fear is if I’m really bad as Golda… in which case, I’ll be toast,” Mirren concluded.
Golda will premiere in 2022, depicting the late prime minister and the challenges working with an all-male Cabinet amid the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (Meir served as Israeli premier from 1969 to 1974 before she died of lymphatic cancer in 1978 at age 80).
