It wasn’t easy for Helen Mirren to recreate classic British dishes in Los Angeles.
When she spoke to PEOPLE about her new Uber Eats NFL campaign, Golda star and self-proclaimed “takeaway” in one instance where she wished she had ordered delivery instead of cooking.
Mirren, 78, first came to Los Angeles during the “very early days” with her husband, Taylor Hackford, whom she married in 1997 after a 10-year relationship. Their first dinner together resulted in a particularly memorable kitchen disaster for Mirren.
“I decided to cook something good, old-fashioned for a British Sunday lunch: roast meat, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings,” she recalls of her menu.
The latter dish was her “downfall,” according to the Oscar winner. “They came out like these horrible little bullets. They were disgusting and I was completely humiliated.”
Helen Mirren in her Uber Eats commercial.
Courtesy of Uber
Despite the politeness of her guests, it did nothing to embarrass Mirren. “I knew how awful they were. That was my great humiliation,” he laughs.
Mirren is also self-critical in the new ad campaign, which will also feature cameos from Idris Elba and Michael Cera in separate commercials. In a nod to the actress’ staid roles on the big screen, the ad shows Mirren having an internal monologue about what she should order.
“Like ants, the people of the city were in a hurry,” says Mirren in a pointed tone as she looks out the window.
“Above them, Lady—ugh, Helen, you’re narrating again, you stupid sausage,” she interrupts herself, changing to a casual voice. “Oh, I’d like a sausage.”
Returning to her sing-song voice, she continues her monologue: “Feeling uncomfortable, Helen ordered her morning groceries -” Ali continues to change into her typical voice, “ugh, god, not this – she recounted – ugh! Screw him.”
The doorbell interrupts her inner conversation and Mirren picks up her Uber Eats bag. Before she closed the door, Mirren saw her neighbor in the hallway.
“Helen was wondering what her neighbor looked like naked,” she casually says aloud in her narrator’s voice. A startled looking man asks, “Please?”
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Mirren thinks in her stoic tone, “Helen picked up her groceries and wanted to die.”
Not all of her culinary adventures are as wild as her real-life dinner or fictional Uber Eats order. Mirren says her love of cooking blossomed during the pandemic.
“That was the great thing about the lockdown, I started looking for recipes and thinking about what we were going to eat. There would always be something we didn’t have, so we always had to order those strange spices online,” she explains.
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Helen Mirren and husband Taylor Hackford. George Pimentel/FilmMagic
When she and Hackford aren’t trying out new recipes they spot online, Mirren chooses Indian, Chinese or Thai takeout.
“Those are the kinds of foods I like to order because I wouldn’t have a clue where to start cooking that kind of food,” she says. “Especially in London, I’m a big outgoing person.”
When it comes to Uber Eats, Mirren says she’s a big fan. “This is not bullshit, I promise you. I was blown away,” she says of her first order — before she secured the gig. “It was so cool, it was on time, it was so easy to order.”
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Source: HIS Education