Helen Mirren shares father’s bold move to change Russian identity
Helen Mirren says, “One minute I was called Mironov, and then, Mirren.”
The Academy Award–winning actress, 80, Helen Mirren, reflected on her father’s decision decades ago to change their family name from Russian to British when she was young.
Mirren’s father, Vasiliy Mironov, was a native Russian and immigrated with his family to England as a boy. In order to fit in, he decided to change his last name, as Mirren explained.
The Thursday Murder Club star told PEOPLE, “One minute I was called Mironov, and then, Mirren.”
The BAFTA- and Emmy-winning actress was one of three children raised by her dad and mom, Kathleen, a U.K. native.
“The reason for it was that he wanted to assimilate,” Mirren explained. “Britain is a much more multicultural place than it was when I was a small child. It was a pretty monoculture sort of place with very few foreign names.”
In her 2011 memoir In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, Mirren wrote that her father was the “young scion of an illustrious Russian family.”
Fast forward to today, Mirren has been married to American film director Taylor Hackford since 1997.
Recently, the actress made a critical statement about her husband, which raised many eyebrows.
The Thursday Murder Club actor said that despite loving the direction and filmmaking of her husband, she doesn’t like working with him.
“I want my work to be separate from him,” the Oscar winner said.
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