Dame Helen Mirren has revealed an injury that she sustained on the set of new film Shazam and said she will ‘take it to the grave’ as it permanently altered her finger.
The legendary actress appeared on Wednesday morning’s instalment of Lorraine remotely from central London and spoke with host Lorraine Kelly about the Shazam sequel.
The 77-year-old confirmed she did do stunts on the superhero film and worked with a stunt coordinator on the DC film to do so.
She then held up her hand to show off her pinkie finger, saying: “In fact, I broke my finger, rather famously.”
Dame Helen then showed her other hand for comparison, explaining: “You see that bent finger, that straight finger. I now call it my Shazam finger. I’ll take it to the grave with me.”
She went on to talk about the ‘incredibly heavy’ costumes on the Shazam! Fury of the Gods, in which she plays one of a vengeful trio of ancient gods called the Daughters of Atlas, alongside Rachel Zegler and Lucy Liu.
She said: “I’ve worn some heavy costumes in my life. Nothing compares to the heaviness of these costumes.
“But of course, being an actress, it gives you swagger. That was the great thing about the cloak and the roman skirt swishing around, all made of real leather, it was very very heavy.
“We were shooting in Atlanta in the middle of summer which is notoriously hot and moist. So we were very hot and moist in our costumes.”
It comes after Roman Kemp was forced to apologise as he hosted The One Show on Monday evening after Dame Helen’s co-star Zachary Levi swore live on air.
The Shazam star made the blunder in the BBC studio while appearing on the evening programme alongside Dame Helen.
Roman Kemp was hosting the show alongside Alex Jones as they interviewed the actors about the upcoming sequel to the 2019 original Shazam.
However, when Zachary launched into a personal speech about his female co-stars, he unintentionally breached the Ofcom guidelines about profanity before the evening watershed at 9pm.
The actor said: “You add to the mix the incredibly beautiful, talented women: Helen Mirren and Lucy Lu and Rachel Zegler who are all the daughters of Atlas and they are p****d off.”
Host Roman was quick to jump in and apologise to viewers at home, as Zachary was none the wiser as to what had actually been foul language.
Speaking to the camera, the host said: “We would just like to apologise for any language that you may have heard a moment ago.
“Certain words mean different things on different sides of the world.”
Zachary was left scratching his head at what he had said as he attempted to make light of the situation by saying: “What did we say? Oh my God I can’t wait to watch this on the internet.”
Co-star Helen was even left confused as she asked Roman if it was her or Zachary that had made the unfortunate slip-up.
