Helen McCrory

An Explosive Energy: Sam Mendes Pays Tribute to Helen McCrory

On April 18, 2021April 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Whether Acting in Chekhov on Stage or a Bond film, the Star – Who Has Died Aged 52 – Was Incredibly Exciting to Watch, Remembers the Skyfall Director

by Sam Mendes | The Guardian | April 18, 2021

When I was directing Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night as my final productions as artistic director of the Donmar in 2002, I asked Helen to play the role of Sonya in Uncle Vanya. Word came back that she would love to have a chat about it. She strode into my office, sat on the sofa and immediately told me I had it all wrong. She told me she should be playing Yelena – the other young female role – and then proceeded to spend the next hour telling me exactly why. She left the room with the part. This has never happened to me before or since. All I can say by way of explanation is that it just felt inevitable. She was clearly already half way to giving a superb performance, I simply had to get out of the way and let her complete the job. Which, of course, she did – with utter brilliance.

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Damian Lewis Feed NHS Print Media Tributes

‘In the last 12 months of her life, Helen McCrory used her power to help those who help us

On April 17, 2021April 20, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

In her final year, living with an illness she kept private, McCrory used her remaining energy to give back

by Guy Kelly | April 17, 2021 | The Telegraph

Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis launched a project to provide NHS workers on the frontline with hot meals. Lewis had just halted production on Billions and flown back from New York for lockdown; McCrory had paused filming the sixth series of Peaky Blinders. Parents to two children, they could have been excused a rest. Instead the couple’s campaign #FeedNHS raised more than £1m.

When Lewis announced that his wife of 14 years had died, aged 52, “after an heroic battle with cancer”, that campaign took on an added poignancy: in her final year, living with an illness she kept private, McCrory used her remaining energy to give back.

I interviewed McCrory and Lewis about #FeedNHS exactly a year ago. They were in lockdown in Sudbury, Suffolk, with their children, Manon, 14, and Gulliver, 12, and sounded less like television’s most eminent couple and more like professional fundraisers.

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Print Media The Deep Blue Sea Trelawny of the Wells Tributes

Helen McCrory Remembered: ‘She had a brightness about her. She was a star’

On April 17, 2021April 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Richard Eyre, the National Theatre Director Who Cast the Actor in Some of Her Earliest Roles, Pays Tribute to Her After Her Death

by Richard Eyre | The Guardian | April 17, 2021

Helen McCrory. ‘The trumpets will have sounded for her on the other side.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

Part of the tragedy of Helen McCrory dying at such a young age, leaving a husband and two young children, is that professionally she had everything to look forward to. She had established herself as a very considerable actor in the theatre and on film and television.

She had a brightness about her, a luminosity: she was, in short, a star. She lit up a stage or a screen – you knew you were in the presence of a force of character and talent.

When I was running the National Theatre in the 1990s we cast her in a play about the theatre called Trelawny of the Wells – part comedy, part melodrama.

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Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes

The Chap: RIP Helen McCrory

On April 17, 2021June 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Remembering an inspiring encounter with Helen McCrory

Gustav Temple | April 17, 2021 | The Chap

As a tribute to the late actress, who died aged 52 on 16th April, Gustav Temple recalls an inspiring encounter with Helen McCrory in 2019, on the eve of Series 5 of Peaky Blinders.

I interviewed Helen McCrory when the fifth season of Peaky Blinders was about to air in 2019. From such a huge star of stage and screen, I expected the familiar ‘luvvy’ personality and being called ‘darling’ interspersed with quotes from Shakespeare, but Helen was the complete opposite. When asked whether we had accurately described the type of cigarettes she smoked in character as Aunt Polly, she waved her hand airily and said, “Oh, who cares? Let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

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Damian Lewis Print Media Tributes

Helen McCrory was a Titan of British theatre. But I mostly knew her as a mum

On April 17, 2021April 26, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Evening Standard editor Emily Sheffield pays tribute to Helen McCrory who has passed away aged 52 from cancer

By Emily Sheffield | April 19, 2021 | Evening Standard

Helen McCrory was a titan of our British theatre and our screens. Without question.

And God, she was glamorous too, we certainly shared a love of frocks. But I mostly knew her as a mum.

Her life as one half of a fabulously charismatic celebrity marriage was rarely discussed – though we did both talk about our work. She was serious and passionate about every job she took on.

Our two sons have been best friends from the age of four. School gate, school run, play dates and sports picnics.

Continue reading Helen McCrory was a Titan of British theatre. But I mostly knew her as a mum