Elizabeth I

Dame Helen Mirren chose Tom Hooper as director, having previously worked with him on Prime Suspect: The Last Witness (2003).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

A servant serves food to the Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons) as he and Queen Elizabeth I (Dame Helen Mirren) dine in a tent before the battle.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The cast includes three Oscar winners: Dame Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons and Eddie Redmayne.

CAREER & AWARDS · SOURCED

Helen Mirren, who has naturally blue-grey eyes, wore dark contact lenses for the series, as Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn, had very dark brown eyes.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Dame Helen Mirren played Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006) and won the Best Actress Oscar for the role. Tom Hooper directed The King's Speech (2010), about Elizabeth's father King George VI. Colin Firth won the Best Actor award for that role.

CAREER & AWARDS · SOURCED

Contributors to the film's entry note that in several places Elizabeth quotes Shakespeare's line "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." The words actually used in the film are not those, however, since she instead says "Love alters when it alteration finds" — a misquote that is directly relevant to the context in which it is used. Elizabeth is extremely displeased with Essex.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Jeremy Irons's son, Max Irons, played King Edward IV in the miniseries The White Queen (2013). Edward IV was Elizabeth I's great-grandfather.

LIFE & FAMILY · SOURCED

Eddie Redmayne appeared in a different role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). He was later presented with the Best Actor award by Cate Blanchett.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Before Ian McDiarmid was cast as Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Sir Ben Kingsley had been considered for the role. Kingsley had played Gandhi for director Sir Richard Attenborough, who played Cecil in Elizabeth (1998).

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

Ian McDiarmid is known for the role of Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars film series. In the prequels he appeared alongside Oliver Ford Davies, who played Polonius in Hamlet (2010). Polonius was largely modelled on McDiarmid's character, William Cecil/Lord Burghley.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Jeremy Irons's role had previously been played by Joseph Fiennes in the film Elizabeth (1998). Irons and Fiennes appeared together in The Merchant of Venice (2004).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED