Mirren's latest - a killer tale about a brothel

Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren never seems to stop working. With more than 100 credits in her distinguished career, she has completed work on five soon-to-be-released projects and has several more coming.

Her latest is "Love Ranch," inspired by events at a famed Nevada brothel in the '70s. The film teams her with Joe Pesci, Spanish star Sergio Peris-Mencheta and, for the first time since the film on which they met (1985's "White Nights"), Mirren's husband, director Taylor Hackford. Mirren spoke by phone from her home in Los Angeles.

Q: What was special enough about this project that you had to do it together?

A: The primary thing was I was incredibly honored that my husband would - and I don't mean this in a mealymouthed, sort of fake humble way - but that he wanted to construct a project that I would want to do. He's been looking for that for quite a long time. If any director shows that sort of loyalty to you as an actress, it's very flattering and it's a great honor, you know? You want to be an inspiration to people, to directors; you want them to look at your work and say, "God, I'd love to work with her!" And I love the fact that my husband felt that about me. He had offered me smaller roles in his other projects, and I turned him down - I was too arrogant for all that (laughs). (Journalist-screenwriter) Mark Jacobson is actually a friend of ours. And he and Taylor, and indeed I, share a love of boxing. Mark had written this piece about this killing at the original Mustang Ranch (involving a boxer) and he wrote a script about it. Taylor developed it with me in mind, and miraculously got the funding for it.

Q: Well, I have a feeling when your name was mentioned some ears pricked up.

A: I think that helped. But even with Meryl (Streep), it's difficult to get financing for slightly offbeat, off-the-wall material that's not a rom-com or a thriller with lots of guns. As it was, we had to do our car chases. ... I had to drive a car that had no brakes (laughs). Like at 70 mph down a dark New Mexico road. I'm on the walkie-talkie, "Taylor, I can't stop the car!" "It's all right, baby, it'll stop eventually" (laughs).

Q: What was the most useful piece of direction he gave you?

A: It was just a look - she goes in and breaks this fight up with the girls. He said, "She's really, really tired. She doesn't want to do this anymore. And there's a moment when she turns away from the girls - you can take that moment if you want, because the camera will see it." From the beginning, he pushed me into being really tired, really grumpy, you know, just a hard woman. He wanted the flowering, the softening, the re-finding of life to happen.

Q: You are in select company of women in your age range whose sexuality is portrayed honestly, taken seriously. Was that a factor in choosing the piece?

A: Yes, absolutely. It wasn't someone (laughs) - I was going to say, "dying of cancer," but she is dying of cancer! I forgot that. But she's out there, holding onto life. It wasn't elegiac. It was strong and complex and incredibly fun. I had my lovely, lovely girls, and they all were wonderful. It's rare on a set, as a woman, that you get to interact with a lot of women. Strangely, a brothel is like a sorority - it's very female-oriented. For better or worse.

Q: Sergio Peris-Mencheta apparently didn't speak English well at the time ...

A: He had some English, he's Spanish; he comes from the Javier Bardem school. He put on a lot of weight; he worked so hard. He almost doubled his size and became big, hunky, lumbering. But he did an amazing job with his English; he was very, very impressive.

Q: Is that challenge akin to someone who doesn't have Shakespeare in the blood trying to emote in iambic pentameter?

A: I know that difficulty! It's like trying to be subtle in a suit of armor. It's such a hard thing, which is why I'm so respectful of the work he did. The quality of his acting was always there. Taylor and I read him; we did it right here in our house because we couldn't afford to go anywhere else. I said to Taylor, "He's a wonderful actor." I could tell, looking in his eyes. It was all there. The subtlety of expression and the thought process and the aliveness, it was all there. I was blown away by him immediately. You need to be inches away from the person to see those things, but you know if you do, the camera will, too. {sbox}

Love Ranch (R) opens Wednesday at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer for "Love Ranch," go to links.sfgate.com/ZJVP.

E-mail freelancer Michael Ordoņa at pinkletters@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page Q - 26 of the San Francisco Chronicle