Helen McCrory

The Custard TV: Our chat with Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory

On August 25, 2019April 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Aunt Polly is Back

Michael Lee | August 25, 2019 | The Custard TV

As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect.

It’s the day of the Peaky Blinders series 5 launch in London. Before the screening, we gather to chat with the cast. Helen McCrory bounds in after the designated meeting time “I’m so sorry I’m late! I was being interviewed“. She takes a look around her “He’s not here now so I can blame him!”

Where do we find Polly at the beginning of the series?

“It starts with the crash and they lose a lot of money very very quickly and she’s back on the streets- not literally! You see her enjoying all the luxuries and then you see her realising she doesn’t have any left.

Continue reading The Custard TV: Our chat with Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory

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VIDEO: The Peaky Blinders Cast on Returning for Season 5 | BFI Q&A

On August 22, 2019April 26, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Peaky Blinders cast members Helen McCrory and Sophie Rundle join writer-creator Steven Knight, executive producer Caryn Mandabach and new cast member Sam Claflin at the BFI Southbank to talk about the fifth season of the BBC’s Birmingham-set gangster drama.

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Helen on Peaky Blinders and Why Damian Lewis Isn’t Asked How He Juggles It All

On August 12, 2019April 12, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

Ageing, Sexism, and the Joy of Family Holidays in a Camper Van

by Julia Llewellyn Smith | The Times | August 12, 2019

Gosh, but having lunch with Helen McCrory is a daunting experience — a bit like sitting down with a more intelligent version of Princess Margaret or the seventh, undiscovered Mitford sister. Even though she’s a dainty thing, McCrory has extraordinary presence, crackling with the energy that has suffused her stage performances at the National, the Donmar and the Almeida and that underscored film roles such as Harry Potter’s Narcissa Malfoy. It has also made her the star of TV dramas such as Penny Dreadful and Peaky Blinders, the long-running BBC period crime drama that we’re here to discuss.

Her commanding aura is boosted by her Pathé-newsreel husky tones and by her marriage to another superstar, Damian Lewis, of Homeland and Billions fame. The couple are self-described “party animals”, frequently photographed looking Burton-and-Taylor glamorous on red carpets, and I imagine she would make the most brilliant hostess — fun, engaged and full of droll bons mots and anecdotes.

Continue reading Helen on Peaky Blinders and Why Damian Lewis Isn’t Asked How He Juggles It All

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Helen McCrory reveals the Peaky Blinders scene that was just too much for TV

On August 9, 2019May 29, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Aunt Polly’s original reaction when son Michael came home was very different in Peaky Blinders

Remember that scene where a hungover Polly (Helen McCrory) stumbled home in her party outfit from the night before, only to find long-lost son Michael (Finn Cole) waiting on her doorstep?If McCrory had her way, the reunion would have been a lot more stomach-turning – but the actress’s first take was vetoed. Continue reading

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Helen McCrory: ‘ I don’t think I’m deep enough to have mental-health issues’

On August 9, 2019April 12, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

On Badass Women and Being Married to Her ‘Best Friend’

by Gavanndra Hodge | The Telegraph | August 9, 2019

She’s straight-talking, hates housework, dresses to kill, and lives life her way – convention be damned. Turns out Helen McCrory has plenty in common with her badass Peaky Blinders character Polly.

Helen McCrory, the multiple-award winning actor, is holding what looks like a moist slice of turkey. ‘What is that?’ I ask. ‘It’s a face mask, darling. £1.99 from Superdrug,’ she says, rubbing it against her neck. ‘It’s going to make me look like a teenager.’

We are standing outside a café on the Regent’s Canal, cyclists and prams whizzing by. McCrory is wearing a floral tea dress, silver Zadig & Voltaire boots, sunglasses and a VIP wristband from a Bob Dylan concert she went to, five days ago. ‘I am never taking it off,’ she says.

There is a sort of rock-star swagger to Helen McCrory, 50, a charismatic, don’t-give-a-damn cool with her chipped red nails and posh-voiced sweariness. She likes to party, to wear top hats and vintage frocks, and there is the inevitable doubling of glamour that comes from her marriage to the actor Damian Lewis (Brody from Homeland, more recently Bobby Axelrod in Billions), with whom she lives in a tall, narrow house in Tufnell Park with their children Manon, 12, and Gulliver, 11.

Continue reading Helen McCrory: ‘ I don’t think I’m deep enough to have mental-health issues’