Helen Mirren talks about her performance in 'The Queen.'

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She's this year's queen of the big screen, and critics have called her performance mesmerizing and deeply human. As Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, Dame Helen Mirren rules. The newly crowned Best Actress nominee just walked away with a Golden Globe® for her royal performance.

Set just days after the death of Princess Diana, The Queen—an Academy Award® nominee for Best Picture—takes an inside look at the royal family's silence about the princess's death and the public's reaction to it.

Although Elizabeth II is famous for her control of emotion, Helen says the feelings are there nonetheless. "I sort of thought of the image of a captain of a submarine," Helen says. "I feel like she's looking out of her body like a captain looking out the portholes of a submarine."