Morgan Freeman is the king of playing God-like characters, including the voice of God in nature documentaries. Dame Helen Mirren is the queen of being an angel on earth, blessing red carpets with her presence. Monday night at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, the latter international treasure presented a lifetime achievement award to the former international treasure, and then they kissed.
Briefly ignoring the night’s unofficial tagline—that is, “be a grown-up”—we’ll point out the two kissed on the lips. After saying some nice words about the actor, Mirren invited Freeman to the stage, where she took his face in her hands and planted a big one on him.
The pair are old friends. They both got into screen acting long after their ingenue days were over (Mirren first trod the boards for several years), and were showered with praise when they did. Freeman presented one lifetime achievement award to Mirren in 2010 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and she’s now returned the favor four times since then.
“I want to go public with saying I’m in love with Helen Mirren, and I have been for some years now,” Freeman said after the kiss, according to Variety.
Completely understandable. Like her talent and her looks, Mirren’s humor has range. It’s at times sexual and occasionally scatological. At least once, it was paleontological.
This December, in AARP Magazine it was utterly practical. She told the publication, “You only have two options in life: Die young or get old. There is nothing else.” Sounds a lot like that Shawshank Redemption quote—“Get busy living or get busy dying.”—spoken to Freeman’s character in the movie. These two are clearly in sync and because of that we nominate them to consider the It’s Complicated 2 script that must be floating around Hollywood right now.
