Dame Judi and Dame Helen, do you know each other fairly well?
DENCH: Well, we don't fairly well, do we?
MIRREN: No, we don't. I know Americans look at Britain as this tiny, tiny country. You must all know each other!
EW: I think there is an idea that there's...
DENCH: A Dames' club?
EW: Yes, where you all sit around drinking Earl Grey tea.
DENCH: No, it's not like that at all.
STREEP: That's not what we think you sit around drinking. [Laughs]
Is it just a fluke that you have these meaty roles in The Queen, The Devil Wears Prada, and Notes on a Scandal? Or do these films indicate an improvement in the way the movie business regards older actresses?
MIRREN: I think there is a growing acceptance of the fact that women actually make up 50 percent of the population. And that women of our generation are an economic force.
STREEP: There are several generations of women who have the habit of going out to the movies and buying a ticket, which is not so true [of young people]. It's just like in the music business. The only people that buy CDs are people like us. Everybody else downloads it illegally off the LimeWire. And that's probably what's coming with movies. But while we still have the habit of going to films, they damn well better market to us and give us something to watch.
DENCH: I agree with that. But I do think it's a fluke when you get a year with a lot of very good parts written for women. It's whatever is in fashion.
The problem may also be connected to the still-notable shortage of female filmmakers. Why haven't any of you ever directed a movie?
MIRREN: Because we're actresses!
STREEP: Why don't you drive an airplane?
MIRREN: Judi, you've directed a couple of times in the theater, haven't you?
DENCH: Yes, about six or seven. With theater directing, they gang up against you, actually. They say, ''We're going to a pub'' — and don't tell you where the pub is! It's a really curious thing. You think, I don't do that. But of course I do do that. I gang up against directors straightaway.
STREEP: That's part of the fun of it.
DENCH: Of course it is. And, as a director, you have to get a lot of wayward people over a line at the same point. And that's very difficult because everybody works at different speeds. I think it's a really difficult job.
But so many male actors do make the move into directing.
STREEP: Well, they're more unfeeling. Look at Judi talking about ''Oh, they all work at a different pace.'' Most directors don't give a s--- about your pace. No, I'm kidding, obviously. I'm kidding!
MIRREN: A weird thing happens to male actors, especially movie stars, in my experience. Which is, they become grumpy old men. I think a young male actor feels great. All the girls want him. He's a star. As they get older, that sense of not being in control of their own destiny sort of grates on them, and they get grumpy. And they move into direction to try and feel they're in control of their own destiny. Whereas I don't feel psychologically challenged, because I'm in a collaborative situation on a set with a director.
Do you find directors are ever in awe of you?
STREEP: Unfortunately...no! [Laughs] I mean, actors are, I can tell you that. Until the second day when I don't know my lines and they go, Well, she's not so f---ing great!
MIRREN: I hate being respected, I really do. It makes me feel so uncomfortable. When younger actors come up and say they respect you, you want to go, ''Don't respect me! I don't want your respect!''
STREEP: But you're happy when you inspire them.
MIRREN: Yes, because I love being inspired by other people. I was thinking about that coming here. It's interesting for me that Meryl and Judi are the two people that are participating today because they've both been incredibly influential on me in terms of ''Oh, God, I wish I could do that. How does she do that?''
STREEP: That's the way I feel about you.
MIRREN: But the reality is that you are yourself. Of course, you take inspiration from other people. But in the end you can only be yourself. You have to stumble on in your own way.
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