>> rose: welcome to the broadcast. tonight we begin our two-week vacation schedule with some of the interesting people who've come to this table in 2009 so far. we begin with something we call grand ladies. they are dolly parton. >> i write all the time. not a day goes by that i don't write down some title, some thought, some idea or even a song or two. >> rose: meryl streep. >> what i learn every time out is how to wrangle all the elements that make me love what i do and make it sort of happen effortlessly. >> rose: and mel len mirren. >> it was shakespeare that took me into the world of the

imagination in terms of drama. and i was just so cometely blown away by the fst shakespearean production i saw. >> rose: grand ladies: dolly pardon, meryl streep and mel len mirren next. captioning sponsored by rose comnications from o sdios inew york city, this is charlie rose.

>> rose: the great dolly parton is here. to millions of fans, she was one of the most iconic and enduring performing artists in america. born on a farm in severe county, tennessee, she was the fourth of 1 children. she startededed performing in te age of ten and says "making music is all i have ever known." her classics include, "jolene" "coat of many colors" "here you come again" and "will always love you." she has received 25 number one billboard hits, seven grammy awards, ten country music association awards and a kennedy center honor. here is a listen some of her work. ♪ now if you see that other bld, there'somhing you might tell her ♪ she need not waste her time away trying tosteel m old yeller away to the westonlysailin ♪ il sail aroun this whole wide world to the one i love the

best ♪ ♪ play a song for me, apple jack apple jack ♪ play a song for me and i'll sing ♪ play a song for me ♪ apple jack, apple jack, play a song let your banjo ring ♪ ♪ and i dare not drown my sorrow in the warm glow of your wine ♪ you can't bmy with money, for i never was that kind ♪ silver threads andolden needles cannot mend this heart of mine ♪ ♪ and the flowers you fwro but they don't smell as sweet as they did when you picked them for me ♪ and when i think of you and the love we once knew ♪ how i wish we could go back in time ♪ do you ever think back on old memories like that

♪ or do i ever cross your mind ♪ iill always le, i ll always love you ♪ >> rose: this spring dolly wrote the music and lyrics for the broadway musical version of "9 to 5." e will perform with the musical cast during the tony awards on sunday, june 7. i'm pleaseder to her here at this table. welcome. >> well, thank you. after looking at those film clips i surely should have said i wrote the music for "hair"! >> rose: i want to know what's going on under there. >> i had a little family of pygmies living in some of that hair. well, that's the w it is. it's so funny looking back at all those things. i don't know where you got a lot that. >> rose: when you do it that way

you can change anything you want. >> that's true. and you think you look good and en you look back and.... >> rose: you did look good and still do. >> well, thank you. >> rose: nice have you here. >> thank you, i'm finally glad to be on this show with you. >> rose: what's the secret to longevity >> well, loving what you do, i think. i'm excited everyday with everything. i never know what i'm going to do. i have a new dream everyday and it's energizing to me and i just wait. i'm a spiritual-minded person so i just kind of pray that everything will come right. >> rose: that god has a purpose for you? >> i do feel that way. rose: you do? >> yeah, i do. always have. and so it's better to believe it. it helps me. takes the pressure off me. i just give him the credit or blame him. >> rose: put yourself in his hands. >> exactly. >> rose: do you write now other than writi for "9 to 5"? >> oh, i write all the time. i've been writingince ias a little bitty girl. i started writing serious when i was about seven years old when i learned to play the guitar. i'm from a musical family.

all my mother's people play and sing. mostly church people. so that gift came natally. but i write all the time. not a day goes by that i don't write down some title, some thought, some idea or even a song or two. >> rose: why do you think it worked out other than god's will for you? i mean, is it passion? it's talent? it's timing? it's luck? >> and sacrifice. >> rose: well, talk about sacrifice. sacrifice is right. >> well, i found out early on that i loved it. as you mentioned earlier in the show, i'm from a family of 12 children, six girls and six boys and i have a sister and two brothers older and eight children younger. so i was kind of born in one of those spots that... and i was very energetic hyper little kid. i needed a lot of attention. so i just needed it but i wasn't getting all the attention. we got love, of course, they loved us all the time. >> rose: but there were so many they couldn't give as much as you like. >> so i found out early on that

i had to... instead of just staying trouble all the time i had to kind of focus on something so i learned to play the guitar and i learned to love it. >> rose: what would trouble be? boys? >> no, just being too hyper and too... trying to get so mu attention and either aggravation or just being loud and not realizing it. just being just into everything. so learned to discipline myself through my music and then i started writing these songs. then people would come arod and my mother was very impressed with the fact that i could write like that. i could rhyme. >> rose: was it simply because you worked at it so hard or was it a gift? >> it was a gift. the gift ran in the family. i just took it and decided i was going too more. so i would wri all thesese songs when people would come to our house mama would say "run and get your guitar and sing that song you wrote." and then i saw i was getting a lot of attention so i thought "wow, this is going to be great." so i just kept that up and i honed in on all of my skills and

sharpened my it with with that and i really just thought later on after the first time i was ever on stage i thought, wow, this is great, people love me. and i know now it was only because i was little, i wasn't that good. but i was just up there doing it and i just thought, i want to make this my whole life. and i have. >> rose: did you create a persona, or was it you? >> well, you mean the way i look? >> rose: no, everything. >> well, i am the way i am, but i always... i was never like a natural beauty. i was not a pretty little kid. i us a wanted to be and i was always impressed with... you know, when the town tramp, i always tell this story but it's the truth. there was a woman in our hometown of severe county. >> rose: d how big is severe? >> small. back tn it was just 200 people. >> rose: and she was the town tramp? >> she was. we didn't get to go to town that often but she had yellow hair, red nails, red toenails, high heels. >> rose: and what was her name, do you remember? >> i ain't telling. >> rose: (laughs) >> because her family will know.

but everybody looked at her and i thought she was beautiful. i would say so and they would say "oh, she's nothing but trash." and i thought "that's what i'm going to be when i grow up, i'll be trash." so i kind of... seriously, though, i thought it was that looked that i liked and it seemed to match my personality because i was more outgoing in my personalty than i looked on the outside. so i just all came together. >> rose: did people project on to you certain behioral expectations? >> you mean when i was little or.... >> rose: no, when you started... >> because i started looking like that? >> rose: yes. >> it turned out to work well for me. i looked totally artificial. i'd like to think i'm totally real. >> rose: of course you are and people know that. >> a lot of people said i would have done much better much sooner, been taken more seriously if i would looked more... like not like a joke or a character. but that's all right because it worked for me and it came from a serious place and i wouldn't change it now. >> rose: would you change anything now? i mean, what... >> i think to change anything

would change everything. i can't look back like that. i know i've done somthings that other people might think are wrong and sometimes i may think i wonder if i should have done that. >> rose: like what? >> well, atever. decisions you make or if you should have done this then or whatever, you know? you can't just say what all it is, but then you think, well, i don't know that i would change anything. you can't live your life like that. >> rose: what are you most proud of? >> well, i proud of all of it. i'm proud that i've been able to make a living at what i love. >> rose: some kind of loving. >> well, it' true. i'm glad i never had to work at anything else. i've been very fortunate. but we were talking about sacrifice. but you give up a lot. i never had children. i couldn't... you know, it just wasn't in the cards for me to have them. >> rose: why not? >> well, i just couldn't have children? >> rose: medically? >> well, we thought we wanted children, my husband and i of 43 years when we first married, we thought we probably would have children. so for a while we didn't do ything to not, nothing happened.

and then my career started going then i started taking birth control pills, you know. and then later when i got off of those, nothing happened. so i just figure it was never meant to be. >> rose: did you think about adoption or.... >> well, you thought about it, but by that time i had... i raise a lot of my younger brothers and sisters that came to live with my husband and i. we sent them to school and we're very involved with our nieces and nephews so we never rely missed it like i thought we would. but now i'm so involved with everybody's kids i guess it just wasn't meant for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine. >> rose: sounds like the marriage worked. >> it did. 43 years. first for both of us. >> rose: how do you explain that >> i stay young. it works like a charm. i stay gone. we don't have to be in each other's face all the the time. i stay gone enough to where it works out and we're excited when we see each other. we're not in the same business. we don't fight over that, he

don't try to tell me how to run my busess because he don't know nothing about it. >> rose: you don't tell him how to run his business whatever it is. >> i don't tell him how to run his business, either. >> rose: who was the first big influence on you? >> well, actually, the big influences in my early life were relatives of mine. i had this woman that was a pentecostal preacher, my aunt, dorothy jo just passed away recently. she sang, she played all kinds of instruments and she sang in the church and she wrote all these great songs. i was very impressed with her. >> rose: she wrote all these great sopgs? >> yes. and my mother was a great singer. that old timey... so i was very influenced with my family because my grandpa was a great musician. but outside of that, when i got to hearingrand ole opry, people like kitty wells, rose maddux, the maddux brothers and rose, she worked with her brothers and they were the first people i saw that wore, like, rhinestones, shiny cloes and i saw... you know, you need to have a show. >> rose: in show business you

need a show. >> just like now it's so hard.... >> rose: don't wear a t-shirt in jeans. >> it's so hard for me to wear jeans and a shirt.... >> rose: because you're so used to... >> rhinestones. i think i have to shine because i think i'm a star. >> rose: take me along the track of dolly parton begins with the talent you ve and what was the big song? what was the best break? >> actually, my big break came... my uncle bill owens is.... >> rose: pretty good. >> my mother's brother is the one that spottedmy talent early on. he used to take me around to differenplaces, took me to nashville, helped me with that. but i moved t nashville when i was 18. i graduated from high school, moved to nashville the next morning. >> rose: the next morning? >> porter waggoner, he was the one that gave me the first big break because he had the number one syndicated television show at that time. and the girl seasoninger that had been with him for years was going to marry and move back home. >> rose: career over. >> yeah. so anywawa he just had seen me n

local t.v., i had a couple of cht records at that time and he'd seen me around and everybody was saying "oh there's in new girlin town, she writes and she sings and she plays." >> rose: she looks fine. >> well, maybe they said that. but anyway, i went down to his office and so i sat there and played him some songs. >> rose: and you were on t.v. the next night? >> well, just about. he offered me the job that day. >> rose: how long did that last? >> seven years. >> rose: you guys were very close. >> we were. we fought like cats and dogs during that time because i had really moved to nashville to be my own star and i had promised to stay with the show just a few years. and then the years started going by and then we were getting very famous as a duet as well and it was porter's show and he was just... so we fought a lot and i wanted to go and he didn't want me to. >> rose: you were getting more famous than he was ande kind of... >> i don't know that it was that so much. he just didn't want me to go cause it was part of his show and i guess he thought he owned

me then. but i don't... i'm not easy to own. >> rose: (laughs) no kidding. no one's ever owned dolly. >> no. god. >> rose: god, but that's it. >> god and me, that's about it. and i share it with everybody else. >> rose: does your career own you? >> no, no. >> rose: you give everything to your career. does your career. whatever you have to do for your career, you'll do it. >> it's not about my career so much as it's about my life. it's about who i am, what i do and what i'm best at. i do love my career. but it never was just about money to me. it was about the art. it was about the fact that i wrote. god gave me a talent and i think he wanted me to make the most of it. so i'mout there and i feel like i touch people, i feel like i make a difference, i feel like i can write songs for people who cat express themselves. so i really think i'm helping, you know? i really feel like i am. >> rose: and if 100% is all the talent you have, how much of it are you using? >> well, i don't know that. i ask god all the time to show

me new things and new ways but i try to give everything i got with what i got to work with. i'd give it all i got. >> rose: (laughs) i'd say that. does it get easier? >> well, i love it. >> rose: writing, performing. >> well, i really love what i do. i've always loved it. sometimes it just gets a little weary just because there's so me m demands on you after you get to a certain point. >> rose: being a personality. >> you're a product. and people want you do this and do that to where it's easy to lose your own self. and being as spiritual minded as i am i often worry about losing my soul or don't let nobody steal your soul, hang on to that for dear life. so it gets... you know, it's always been easy for me to say yes and it's always been easy for me to say no. >> rose: it's easy to say yes and it's easy to say no? >> yeah. but it all works and i certainly am not complaining. want to the do this all the days of my life. >> rose: did you run into a lot

of sexism? i mean, you mentioned porter's show and all of that. >> well, i did. but ilways used that to my best interest, because i looked like a girl that may be easy. but i was serious about my work and it didn't take long. because i grew up with s brothers, my dad, all my uncles, all my boy cousins. so i knew the ture of men. i love men. i loved my daddy. i had a great relationship with my dad and he' just a good old redneck guy, you know? but i know how they... how they think. >> rose: you know how men think? >> yes, and i always felt like that i... i alws say i look like a woman but i think like a man. so when somebody thought they really maybe had me right where they wanted me or thought i would be, i would... like i've often said this joking but it's sort of the truth, i would just have the money and be gone. or i would just say, look, i think that.... >> rose: this is great!

>> i'm serious, though. >> rose: you are great! >> i would say i think i've got a lot to offer. i think i can make us both a lot of money. so i'd just go in selling my goods, not myself, you know? myself was part of the goods but i wasn't... i never slept with anybody to get ahead. i slib with somebody, it's because i wanted to, not because i was doing it to make any point for somebody. i'm a very professional dolly parton. i can't tell somebody else how to be a professnal but i know who i am, i know what i will, won't do, what i should and shouldn't do. so i've been able to be fortunate to have... wind up with a lot of wonderful people that helped me greatly along the way. >> rose: it seems toe that you have this most extraordinary self-awareness. that that is a signal quality of yours. yoknowourself, you know who you are, you know what your talents are, you know what you

want. you are prepared to suffer to get it. >> well, that's true. and i think that's a qualit that people should have. i mean, it's like if you don't know who you are, you can't expect to pay somebody to tell you who you are, you know? if you know who you are, you've got a good starting point. and i've... from a good family, good people. country people but there was a lot of good stuff in there on both sides of my family. good personalities, depth and tenderness and sensetyty and caring. and the talent, too. so i just saw that there was so much of that stuff that i needed to... and i was very, like say spiritual-minded. i believed in god and i believed there was something greater than me that i could look to to draw strength from. and i have... that has guided me and led me rough the years and it's kept me from... it'sept me strong and it's kept me from

ever having ego problems or having false pride. >> rose: knowing that somebody larger than you? >> yes. and it's a thing that i love. but i am very aware of who i a and i like myself. >> rose: food is one of life's pleasures and necessities. it has been a subject in society for centuries, permeating literature and art and music and certainly movies. ♪ food, glorious food, what more could we live for ♪ >> i don't want to be slinging pizza for the rest of my life. >> the best pizza! >> tell me what the rat wants to cook. ratatouille, it's a peasant dish.

>> too hot for you? >> no. >> i read your article about ice cream. i have to tellllou, i disagree with you about haagen-dazs rum raisin. >> what can i say? >> you're so vicious about it. >> i'm a vicious person. >> blueberry pie and cream! it's the most marvelous blueberry pie i've ever tasted. >> holy cow, what's happening to your face? violet, you're turning violet, violet! ♪ these are probably the worst pies in london ♪ i know what it's like to taste the pie, i should know, i make them ♪ >> i ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. >> leave the gun, take the canoli. >> he came in, yous came in, i figured you know, i'm so happy to see him. look, go inside, make yourself comfortable, i'll make us something to eat. >> this is what the customer

asks for. make it. make the pasta. make it! make it! make the pasta! come on, let's go. >> i'd like the pie heated and i don't want the ice cream on top, i want i it on the side and i'd like strawberry if you have it. if not, no ice cream, than whipped cream. if if it's real, not inside of a n. >> rose: nora ephron has taken her passion for food and called it "julie & july ya." it stars meryl streep and amy adams and others and spein of meryltreep as julia child the "new york times" says "b now this actress has exhausted every spurlive the that exists and to suggest she has outdone herself is only to y that she's done it again. her performance goeseyond physical imitation, though she has the ronalded shoulders and fluted voice down perfectly." and e "washington post" notice "julie and julia might have tart started out as a pa on to the joys of cooking but it turns out

to be a morerofound appreciation of the mutual comprehension and erotic chae that defines a great marriage." and finally t "wall street journal" "nora ephron's julie and julia gives us meryl streep in a grand comic performance. a fearless actress playing the fearless julia child in post world war ii paris where she is in the process of transforming herself from an embassy wife into a world famous apostle of french cuisine here's the trailer for julie and julia. >> i'm julia child, bonappetit! >> before she changed the world, julia child was just an american living in france. >> shouldt i find something to do? >> what is it that you really like to do? >> eat! >> and you're so good at it! >> i am. >>k at you. >> i'm growing in front of you! >> but what does julia child have to do with me? lowly cubicle worker julie powell? >> how's your job, julie?

>> are you the person to speak to about my insurance form? >> you can speak to me. >> do you have any power? >> no. >> heart breaking. >> sad. >> painful but not in a bad way. >> if you met me, would you think "that woman is lost"? >> i would think "that woman is strangely repetitive. >> did you hear what happened to this one? >> show time bought my blog f a mini series. >> i could write a book. i have thoughts. >> wri a blog about cooking. >> i'm not a real cook like julia child. >> julia child wasn't always julia chil >> why don't i go to cooking school. bonjour! >> the julie/julia project. i cook my way thrgh julia child's cook book. 365 days, 524 recipes. i am risking my well-being for a deranged assignment. is it crazy? >> yes. >> you should have seen the way those men looked at me! and then they discovered i was fearless. >> oh, julia, you make it sound

so simple. (screaming) >> your book is going to change the world. >> what if i don't make my deadline? i'll have wasted a wholeyear of my life. i used to be thin and now i'm fault. >> just ur faced. >> it's supposed to be a big adventure but it turned out to be lot of meltdowns. >> yuck! there's all of this stuff the floor! >> o, never apologize. >> from writer/director nora ef fron. >> this is good. >> that is good, isn't it? >> meryl streep, amy adams. >> i was drowning and she pulled me out of the ocean. >> don't get carried away. >> what's for diner? >> what's for dinner. >> oh, my. >> you have no real talent for cooking. >> rose: i am pleased to be joined by two friends, nora ephron the writer and director and meryl streep, the great

actress. were you a day vo tae of julia child? >> i was in high school, of course. >> rose: (laughs) >> i was in the eighth grade. >> rose: buthe book has been... had a hundred thousand prints. so it doesn't matter what generation you are up front. >> no, no, exactly. my mother was not a devotee. it was "hurry up and eat it." >> rose: (laughs) well, do you cook? >> we had a lot of steaks, chops tuna fish and noodle casserole. >> rose: du but do you? >> me? yes, i cook. >> if you have someone so pronounced in size, personality, voice, distinct and different, easier to do or hard to do? >> hmm. um... well... it depends if they're there looking at you. when i made "heartburn" there she was on the set and i couldn't really do her.

buit was kind of... certain elements were irresistible. and so, you know, i felt like for a straight jacket. >> rose: like which ones? >> oh, just the way of wrangling a phrase and sort of polishing it with the front of your mouth. you know, that whole thing. >> rose: is that what makes her unfrigging believable? >> but i think it's better if they're not there observing you. >> rose: can we just go back when you played her what you were trying to capture. when you played her? >> julia? >> rose: no! nora! >> oh, no, no. >> this is old stuff. water under the bridge. (laughter) >> rose: you know, it was... it was a very familiar... the outlines were very familiar to people i knew that, and me, too. but in a way danny ackroyd's version was even more vivid in our mind.

so it was already kind of ricatured in your head and i didn't want to... i wanted to look at h in the idealized way julie did. i wanted... because this is julie's imagined julia in her head. she imagines this gal in paris with her husband. and i think because it's in this rose i can't tell hue, i just wanted to make it as real as it could possibly be. i didn't feel that i reay had to adhere to everything piece of research i'd done on julia. i just wanted to make a human being that liveed. >> rose: did you watch a lot of tape and all that? >> yeah. yeah. some of them were incredibly unhelpful because, you know, the show became kind of more performed later in her life. the very earliest ones, when she

first put herself in front of a camera and... in those days, hard to remember, people didn't know what they looked like on tape. people weren't being photographed from the fetal stage, you know, and thrown up on the t.v. screen. so she was sort of really authentically who she was and she was 50 and formed and donee, you know? >> rose: why was she magical? >> oh, gosh, how do you define charm and that thing that certain people have where they exude ja devooef. that's what she had. she seemed to be happy to be alive eveday that she was. she lived to be 92. >> rose: and she found the love of her life after rejecting others. >> yeah. >> rose: looking for the right... >> yes. i don't know how much rejecting. she did turn down the gugu who

was going to be... owned the "l.a. times," chandler. >> rose: turned him down. >> turned him down. >> rose: she wasn't quite ready. >> yeah. and i think, you know, she was 6', her sister was 6'4. i think they were used to being sort of outsided... out of... sized out of the competition for men. i felt such... you know, you never know, really, the ins and outs of a personality. i mean, it's hard enough to know... understand the people in your own family and your own parents, but to imagine that you know the inner life and conflicts and anxieties of a public person is very, very difficult. but it's endlessly interesting. it's what makes me want to be an actor. it's my great fun. but i thought, you know, i

had... i never met her, but i did have an encounter with her. >> rose: what was the encounter? >> during the time that i was working... for about ten years i was working with a group called mothers and others aligned with the n.r.d.c. which was trying to get organic produce in the local supermarkets. a thing that was just impossible and unheard of and nobody... you know, you couldn't get it. and i thought it would be a great idea to enlist her help. but she really brushed us off in a very sort of dismissive rough way in a letter. that kind of... it made my world crumble. because she seemed like someone who was so sunny. and yet i... and yet in leaing more about her, i learn that she was very resistant to the idea that anything to do with

raising your cholesterol might have something to do with butter and all these well marbled meats and things. >> rose: failure is something you know. >> well, you just always... it that thing where you say... you spoke of earlier, the responsibility to someone who really existed and who people loved. not the population. i didn't care so much about that. but her family.... >> rose: tell me about that. you wanted her family to... >> i didn't want to disappoint. yeah. yeah. >> rose: y wanted them to say you nailed it or you were true to her spirit. >> i captured her... yes. because really, really, for me it was more like... i mean, honestly it was more an homage to my own mother who had so many of the outsized elements of julia's character and her joy in living and her sense of fun and

mischief and being up for anything and game and not interest in whining whatsoever you know? all those things. aened i thought, oh, here's mary. and i get to do it. >> rose: here is mary, your mother? >> yes. >> rose: now, are you your mother's daughter? >> i have a little bit of both, i think. up? which is... >> well, my mother and my father. and my dad was much more of a romantic and a musician and a little melancholy and a little dreamy and solitary. and i have all of those things, too. >> rose: did they both live to see all the good things that happened to you? >> yes. yes. all the grandchildren and, yeah. but my mom died in 2001 when this takes place. this film.

and it's opening today on her birthday. so i feel like there's some wonderful serendipity at work. >> rose: was that in your mi clearly? >> it's never far from my mind, yeah. >> rose: you're on a roll, as they say. is she not? >> no kidding. >> rose: no kidding. i mean, isn't it a great time to be meryl streep? >> yeah. i mean.... >> rose: i mean everything, the family thing. >> i keep looking over my head. >> rose: why? >> i keep thinking "oh, man, i'm getting set up here." >> rose: no, you're not. i'm just fishing. >> no, i mean just by fate. >> rose: oh. >> we don't want to look at our good fortune, really in the eye. but i am very happy and lucky and tired at the moment. ready to take a break. >> rose: how long is a break. >> well, i made seven movies in two and a half years. >> why? >> rose: i don't know! because they asked me to. and i guess my children were

older and said "go, go, do." >> rose: do you continue to learn? >> yes. >> rose: in other words, having done... had this experience, you are better? >> i don't know. i don't know. this was so fun and so... sort of effortless. is i think you learn more from the challenging things. >> rose: what was the toughest? >> oh, ah.... >> rose: sophie's choice or... >> no. no, no, no. there have been tough things that i care... i probably won't go into. but just because... just because they... i... my molecules change in me according to how happy i am and whether... and my creativity gets... you know, what i learn every time out is

how to wrangle all the elements that make me love what i do and make it sort of happen effortlessly. and when it... when that doesn't come easily, i don't really have a bag of tricks to go to or a method, you know? i don't. so i come unmoored. and part of that is a very good thing, because you have to reassemble. nobody knows what i'm talking. >> ros no, we do. >> actors do. >> rose: no, no, no and... >> so it's very good. you have to start blank and figure out how to begin again. how to begin again. it's very good. >> rose: how are actors different than the rest of us? >> well, they ve a zen life. it's everything... it's very uncertain. and all lives are uncertain, but actors know it. and actors... because you're

unemployed so often. and you live so intensefully the moments that you are working that when you come back to earth and look around and that balloon has gone and there's no other one on the horizon so y live where you are. i think actors live exactly where they are. the really good ones. and that's why they seem kind of crazy. >> rose: well, we should all be there. isn't that where we all should want to be? >> yes, i think so. i think it's an authentic way to live. yeah. >> rose: damee helen mirren is here. for four decades she has acted on television and movies and in the theater. makes her a triple threat, it does. some of her work includes

"gosford park" "elizabeth" and "prime suspect." in 2007 she won the oscar for "the between." here is a look at her i action. >> yes, that's it sfwlfrngts set thworldo right. callhe dragon. mend the sword. speak the arm of making. >> thwarted by both ones parents in the same evening. at is family lifcoming to? >> i always thought it would be so b so. in england the ince always hates the king >> is that why he' mad. >> if he is mad, sir, you have made himo by your idleness. >> that's all you people can think about, isn't it? well, my life won't change either way. >> who are you? >> i'm mr. weisman. >> make sure they're probably laled.

put them down there. >> rose: >> where am any >> in the stable block with the groom. her ladyship is in the chinese room. elsie! >> you're looking at january! >> february. >> march. >> april! >> death by my arter. oh, oh my. (screaming) >> you are gathering evidence, you were going after lucic. the meeting we had never took place. did it ever cross your mind you might actually be wrong? >> yes. >> your office investigation, take a week's leave. >> it is my belief they will at any moment reject this... this mood which is being stirred up by the press in favor of a

period of restrained grief and sober, private, mourning. that's the way we do things in this country: quietly with dignity. >> rose: her newest project is her memoir, it is called "in the frame: my life in words and pictures." i am pleased to have dame helen mirren back at this table. look at this. welcome, welcome. >> yes, thank you. i know, many baby. one of my many babies. >> rose: so why did you decide... (laughs) in here? >> yes, yes. >> rose: so why a memoir now? >> oh, god. i was asked... you know, i've been asked over the last ten years to write a memoir, an autobiography, and i resisted it because i couldn't think of how to do it. and then a very good friend of mine sort of suggested this picture format, which is very easy because you don't have to write so much. but in the end i did write. i was asked to write 15,000

words and i wrote 56,000 words. so it sort of expanded because actually i really enjoyed the writing process. >> rose: the process or the actual... i mean... you mean the process suggests there's something about the process you enjoyed rather than simply putting your thoughtsçó down and your feelings down on paper. >> well, isn't that sort of the process? >> rose: okay, fair enough. >> it's those quiet moments with the computer and your memory. my memory is terrible. but, you know, memory such a wonderful thing because you can... it's like a... how can i explain it? it's like a river or a little stream, bubble, a brook that starts bubbling and then more and more and more. >> rose: michael caine once said to me "it's much easier than you think. once you get started, things you thought about that you couldn't imagine accessing come back." they come back and you can go on a sort of memory trip just remembering one thing. like the walk to school in the morning. and then you remember the pavement, you remember the flower bush that you passed. you remember your uniform.

you remember ironing your uniform and then all of these things start coming up that you never realized you carried in your brain. the brain is a wonderful, wonderful thing. >> rose: we'll show some of these photographs. but you also... you have to face the question as to when am i being too honest? too candid? too revealing? and who might get hurt in this if i did this? >> yes, i didn't feel the need to address that because i... i didn't feel like attacking or criticizing anyone. there are people in my life who deserve to be attacked and criticized, but i just didn't... i don't know. it's mean spirited and vain in a particular way and i just didn't feel the need for that. i wanted the book, really, to be about the pleasure of my life, the love of my life, the love in my life. and, you know, i... and on that level it came very easily. i put the knife into one person. >> rose: who was that? >> i'm not going to say.

you'll have to find him in the pages of the book. (laughs) >> rose: but you hit on the target that i want to talk about. the pleasure of your life, the love of your life. what was inside. but let's talk about early times first. what was home like growing up with you? >> well, i grew up in an extremely small house, a family of three children in a lower income sort of environment. but an environment full of contradiction which i think was very healthy. my parents were atheists and my father was probably a communist or an extreme socialist but they sent know a catholic convent school. so that in itself sort of describes the sort of wonderful contradiction in my life as a kid which i think is very healthy. >> rose: they loved to talk about issues at the dinner table. >> they did. we had no television. we didn't have a radio. >> rose: small talk was not a big thing. >> no. no, gossip? no. i'm not saying they're strict or made us, but they love to talk about issues like is there such a thing as a soul, what is part,

stuff like that. and always encouraged to express my opinion and to have opinions and to talk. but very much within that sort of family environment. >> rose: how did... where did this idea of being a performer come from? >> i don't know. you know, it's... i mean, i think it has to be jeanetteic to a certain extent and certainly on the russian side of my family there was always an interest in the theater. in fact, one of my ancestors in russia started, in a way, the first theater in russia. he started a serf theater on his estates in russia in the sort of... i don't know, 18th century 17th, 18th century. it was one of the sort of very first formal theaters. but... so it's... i guess it's there, my mother was an enormous drama queen so it might have come from my british working class side of my family. i don't know. >> rose: now, what who was it

that said... wasas it mary mildred? who said "beware of fear?" >> mother mary mildred. my headmistress. a nun, you know, she was a catholic none in the convent school that i was in. when i went for my first interview with her and i was, of course, extremely frightened. she just said this very wise thing which was "beware of fear. just be careful with fear." and it takes you many years to understand the wisdom in something like that. >> rose: what was it that got you on stage and got you interested in the national youth theater and got you at the royal shakespeare and got you to peter brooks? >> well, you know, a love of the world of the imagination, i suspect. >> rose: really. >> the ability to sort of shut the rest of the world out and enter into a magical world. for me it was shakespeare that took me into the world of the imagination in terms of drama. and i was just so completely

blown away by the first shakespearean production i saw. what are you laughing at? >> rose: i'm remembering they call you the stratford... >> yes, well, what can you do? it was my my fault? >> rose: really, whose fault was it? >> the fault of the bloody journalist who wrote that. >> rose: let's look at the pictures you took. who is that? >> that's my sister and my brother. my sister, me in the middle. >> rose: this? >> that was a costume fidget. i've always loved costumes. that was my first proper costume fitting at the royal spax peer company. you can see what a poser i am already. >> rose: did you have favorite shakespearean character? >> rose lynn is a great character. >> rose: stratford'sery... it has that come-hither look,. >> maybe. >> rose: come hither on the grass with me. >> i must find the name of that journalist and send him a thank you note. thank you for nothing.

>> this is working with the great.... >> rose: looks like arthur miller. >> it is the great arthur miller. up into what impact does peter brook have on you? >> oh, my goodness. well, probably the work that i did with him probably reverberating in me in my professional life throughout. >> rose: okay. because what? >> because ihink that he was the... he was the person who truly understood... you know, he is a great genius and truly understood that every actor is an absolute individual. and you cannot form yourself... and actors always looking at other actors saying "why can't i do that? they're so brilliant? why can't i be like that? why can't i be like her?" and actually all you really have is yourself and it's finding the truth of yourself that you have to sort of present on the stage. >> rose: how do you do that? find the truth of yourself?

>> you don't find it by looking. that's a terribly zen sort of answer. you don't find it by looking. and, of course, it's.... >> rose: that's a very interesting point. >> actors are so confused because they're h hing to look at themselves and trying to find themselves all the time in order to reproduce... even though you're obviously often playing a character far beyond yourself. but every character you play always kaur reis some of yourself within it. and the only way you can really perform any character really well is by giving it of yourself of your own emotional story. >> se: but you're saying you can't go in search for it, you wait for it to come? >> in a way. that's a kind of stupid, dumb answer because you go "what the hell does that mean?" >> rose: (laughs) all right. then along comes in 2006, as we go down memory lane, "prime suspect." no, it ended in 2006. >> much earlier. it ended in 2006. >> rose: it came along in...

>> started in 1980 something or other. >> rose: did you know what this could be for you? >> no, you never do, charlie. these things come kind of... you know, sideways, they hit you always from the side. >> rose: and who was the brilliant person that decided that was perfect for you? >> i think probably sally head, who was was the head of drama at grenada at the time. and maybe linda who wrote it. i don't know. you never know. these things come upon you mysteriously. >> rose: when you settled in the first year that you said "man, this feels good, this is comfortable for me, i like the way this... >> well, it was a great role, any great role you feel like this. it was a... you know, the first episode was wonderfully written by linda and she created a great great character. and then as we went on with it, it was a wonderful way to sort of reflect hopefully the world around you. that was how i saw it. >> rose: it was about a culture,

too. >> about a culture, absolutely. and a history, now, becausese yu know it went through, over... i don't know, 15 years or so. >> rose: but we got to know you and your flaws and your sense of authenticity. all that stuff. >> yes, i hope so. >> rose: were you sad to see it leave? >> no, no. >> rose: because you're a a big hollywood movie star by then? >> no, not at all, no! >> rose: oh, i'm an oscar winner. i don't have time for "prime suspect" anymore in my life. >> charlie, it ended long before i won an oscar >> rose: (laughs) i know that. >> an oscar! >> rose: you won an oscar! >> i was writing a little piece about that, actually. >> rose: what were you saying? >> i was just describing the whole process, the whole evening >> rose: but you were perfect in it. your perfect little answering speech was great, don't you think? >> i have... i thought about that. i had to think about it because

you couldn't... it was too delicate with all of the responsibility of the queen and britain and people's... that... anything about the royal family in england, as you probably know britain, people are sort of... just waiting for you to make a slip. so i had to be careful. >> rose: well, not just careful. but people had a feeling... >> and funny, i hope. >> rose: and they just thought you got her and what i think surprised some people is you liked her. you grew to understand her and admire her. >> well, i don't know about understand, you know. >> rose: i would think undersnd more than like. but you're saying like more than understand? >> well, certainly like and maybe love. >> rose: maybe loved her? >> yes, maybe loved her. >> rose: because? >> i think a combination of complicated things. partly because she was so very much of my parents' generation. although younger. but, you know, she came out of the pre-war and then the war generation of britain and those

with the years that formed her character and her personality and that incredible sense of discipline. >> rose: and responsibility. >> and responsibility. and a kind of sacrifice. and adhering to it through thick and thin and absolutely never waivering. never waivering. really extraordinary. and as i studied her and the penny dropped more and more about who this person was that i'd kind of taken for granted, like sort of big ben. pass it a million times in my life, never really pay attention. when i had to actually pay attention, the enormity and the impressiveness of what she'd done and achieved sort of came upon me. >> rose: now, i know you don't like these kind of questions but i... i'm obsessed with them. >> (laughs) that's hont. i'm dying to know what it is now. >> rose: well, what was the

hook? what was the way that you sort of said "ah-ha! " >> there was a littl tiny bit of film that i watch over and over again. it was only about... about 12 seconds of film. >> rose: 12 seconds? >> yes. and it was her getting out of a car when she was about 1 or 13. and at that point she didn't know that she was going to be queen. because, remember, she wasn't brought up from the moment she was born. it was something that slowly dawned upon her. first, obviously, with the abdication of her uncle and then with the fact that her parents didn't have any more children, which they could have done. so she didn't know that she was going to be queen. she was getting out of one of these enormous black cars, you snow and she's about 1 or 13 and she's obviously been told "you get out and you put your handout and you are polite to the man who will great you." a beautiful, beautiful little girl and this big man in a suit. and she just does it so

correctly, with such kind of gravity and grace and, you know, she's doing exactly what she was told to do. but she's doing it with such, as i say, gravity and grace and... what's the word? not honor, i can't think of the right word. >> dignity? >> dignity, thank you. thank you, charlie. dignity, exactly the word i'm looking for. as a 1-year-old, 13-year-old. and it makes me cry every time i look at it. it's so beautiful. and she wasa... also, she was a laughing little girl. you see early film of her skipping along laughing, this beautiful smile that she had. and looking after her sister, making sure her s ster doesn't mess up, even as a young girl. >> rose: in the "the frame" the memoir of dame helen... do you like this dame thing? >> not much. i don't. i don't. i always forget about it and

people like you remind me. >> rose: see, i don't ever know what to say. it's like sir. some people... they don't want you to forget. >> no, right. >> ros and other people, they're uncomfortable, they don't want you to say it. >> i'm the uncomfortable person, a little bit. i am. i don't... anyway. i don't see myself by that at all. >> rose: i adore you. >> do you, charlie? >> oh, i do! (laughs) even after four decades. >> rose: i'm going to get another black eye. one's enough. much success, my dear. >> thank you. thank you very much,harlie. captio sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh accessgbh.org