Dame Helen Mirren made her grand entrance at the Cannes Film Festival red carpet on Friday, May 24. Her regal Elie Saab gown draped into a half off-the-shoulder shape with a folded bodice, extending into a skirt with a dramatic train. Her entire dress was cut from a rich, throne-room-worthy purple satin, emphasized by a slick, elegant hairstyle and light makeup. The decorated actress looked like she was inhabiting the part of an early-twentieth century monarch, come to rule over the red carpet. And in a way, she says she was.
Speaking to Marie Claire the following morning from the L'Oréal Paris suite at the Hôtel Martinez in Cannes, Mirren didn't want to refer to her slicked-back, curled bob and classic red lip accompanying her look as "beauty"—or even hair and makeup. Instead, she thought in terms of the age-old Shakespeare quote: the carpet was her stage, and the 360-degree ensemble represented a part she came to play.
