Helen Mirren: Happy In Hawaii

The Queen star Helen Mirren takes a dip in the Pacific Ocean with her producer husband Taylor Hackford in Hawaii on Friday, November 28. The 63-year-old Oscar-winning actress showed off her enviable figure in a purple tankini as she went snorkeling.

Helen is currently filming a Shakespearean screen adaptation The Tempest on the islands. According to IMDB, in Julie Taymor’s version of The Tempest, the gender of Prospero has been switched to Prospera. Going back to the 16th or 17th century, women practicing the magical arts of alchemy were often convicted of witchcraft. In Taymor’s version, Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it’s a tabula rasa: no society, so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda (Felicity Jones). This leads to the power struggle and balance between Caliban (Djimon Hounsou) and Prospera; a struggle not about brawn, but about intellect.