Golda: Helen Mirren as Prime Minister in Nativ’s So-So Biopic

Oscar winner Helen (“The Queen”) Mirren was honored by the festival with an achievement award ahead of the Israeli premiere of “Golda,” in which she plays the legendary former prime minister Golda Meir, who faced the unthinkable during the surprise Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Guy Nattiv, who directed the film, introduced Mirren on Thursday evening as a “true mensch… we are honored you played Golda, and thank you so much for who you are, thank you for coming here.”

The actress recounted her time on a kibbutz in the Golan Heights just after the 1967 Six-Day War, when there were still “a few shells going off in the grapevines.”

“When they realized that was a bit too dangerous for this shiksa from London, they yanked me out of the grapevines and they put me in the kitchen,” she recalled.

While washing the dishes in the kitchen, she said, she heard a burst of Hebrew behind her, which she didn’t understand, before it went quiet. “I turned around, and it was completely empty because everyone had gone down into the bomb shelter, leaving me right at the back of the kitchen doing all the washing up.”

I’m a horrible, greedy actress, all I want to do is play great women, and Golda was one of the greatest,” joked Helen Mirren, the star of Guy Nattiv’s movie, Golda, about Prime Minister Golda Meir, at a press conference ahead of the film’s Israeli premiere at the opening of the 40th Jerusalem Fest.

Golda will be screened for an audience of about 6,000 at the Sultan’s Pool Amphitheater on Thursday night, and Mirren, as one of the guests of honor, will receive an Achievement Award.

She was responding to a question from the Jerusalem Post about whether she faced criticism or pressure of any kind not to play an Israeli icon or work with an Israeli director.

It was a serious question, but with her trademark wit, Mirren found a funny side and emphasize that she faced no pressure at all.

“I’m a horrible, greedy actress, all I want to do is play great women, and Golda was one of the greatest.”

It was one of many light moments at the press conference, which was held at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, just steps from the Jerusalem Cinematheque, where most of the 200 films from 45 countries – including the latest in Israeli cinema – in the festival will be screened. Other guests of honor at the festival this year include Oliver Stone, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, and Claire Denis. Mirren was joined at the press conference by Nattiv, screenwriter Nicholas Martin and Lior Ashkenazi, who plays David “Dado” Elazar, in Golda. Three of Meir’s grandchildren, Gidi Meir, Daniel Meir, and Shaul Rahabi also attended.

Mirren, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II and who is one of the world’s leading actresses, said she was so enthusiastic when approached by Nattiv to play the part that, “We had a very small budget, but I would have done it on a much smaller budget,” leading Ashkenazi to quip, “Now you’re telling us.”

Nattiv explained how it took more than a year to get the budget even after Mirren signed on, but how it was good that they had that time to prepare. “It was kind of amazing how we shaped Golda, the way she walks, how she’s slower . . .having this time helped with the process.”

Mirren agreed. “It helped find the shape of the script, which was very important as well,“ she said.

Mirren went on to say, “Absolutely, undoubtedly, Golda is one of the most extraordinary characters I’ve ever played, her history, her commitment to her country, her character in general.” But while she saw Meir’s uniqueness, she saw some common threads with other historical figures she has portrayed. “She actually did have a bit in common with, I’d say, Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great and even Elizabeth II in the sense that she had utter dedication to her country, her dedication to her country was over everything, over family, over personal contentment, over personal ambition. . . They were profoundly ambitious for their country, you could see that they dedicated their whole lives to their country.”

Mirren said she had delved deeply into Meir’s life and what it was like for her to be such a powerful woman. “If you’re talking about a whole history of feminism and women in power, Golda is a very interesting example in the sense that she had immense power, but as all you guys know, it was called Golda’s kitchen cabinet and she was perfectly happy to toddle around in the kitchen, making everyone coffee and being the grandmother, you know, and playing the grandmotherly role. It’s a very different attitude to power, isn’t it, from what you think of the male Netanyahu type of power, to this extraordinary kitchen power. But it’s still immense power. . . It just comes from a different emotional place. . . . Or let’s say it plays into different psychologies of the people you’re leading.”

A representative of the MyHeritage company joined the press conference to say that Mirren’s background had been researched and some very distant connections had been found between the Meir and Mirren families. Mirren thanked the researchers, saying, “It goes to show that we are all one family, and when we’re in times of divisiveness and strife, as I know Israel is right now and the whole world is, it would be very good for all of us to remember that.”

Asked about the coincidence of the fact that she is participating in another festival movie – she is the voice of the narrator in Barbie, which is having its sneak preview there — she said, “I think that we need a Golda Meir Barbie,” a remark which brought down the house and concluded the event.

Mirren agreed. “It helped find the shape of the script, which was very important as well,“ she said.

Golda: Helen Mirren as Prime Minister in Nativ’s So-So Biopic

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