Dame Helen Mirren says Patricia Highsmith film script kept her guessing

Dame Helen Mirren has admitted she had “no idea” where the script for her “page-turning” new film would go.

Adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith from her play Switzerland, A Talent For Murder also stars Alden Ehrenreich as Edward Ridgeway, a young literary editor at a New York publishing house who is sent to the European country to persuade the renowned author Patricia Highsmith to write one final instalment of the Ripley anthology.

Highsmith was an American writer best known for her psychological thrillers, including five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley, with the film blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

Highsmith was largely a recluse in Switzerland during her final years and died aged 74 in 1995.

Speaking to the Press Association at the London premiere of the film in which she plays the author, Dame Helen said that while there was little material to draw upon from Highsmith’s final years, the script not only guided her – but kept her on the edge of her seat.

She said: “I think I was helped there by the writing because it was a wonderful script.

“Very often when you read a script, you kind of know what’s going to happen or can guess.

“But, with this, it was a real page-turner and I had no idea where it was going. It was a constant surprise, so that was really what drew me to playing the role.”

Dame Helen said the lack of background material to draw upon gave her a “sense of freedom”.

“Of course, you want to be accurate to the way a person is, the way they move, the way they sound, the way they look, all of that sort of thing,” she said.

“Although this film is not a documentary, it’s a drama, I felt it was very important to inhabit Patricia Highsmith as truthfully as possible. But the fact that she is, to the audience, is a sort of unknown character gave me a freedom.

“I didn’t feel quite so sort of nervous and structured as you would if it was an extremely well-known person.”

While Dame Helen said she was a fan of the “great writer”, the actress admitted she had to lose a sense of vanity to play the role.

“I had to look like Patricia Highsmith, and she was no great beauty.

“She was very pretty when she was young, but towards the end of her life, booze and life really took its toll on her,” she said.

She added: “She probably would have hated me playing her, because I’m in the end, I’m quite feminine. You know, she’d hate this sort of outfit.”

With a career spanning nearly five decades, Highsmith wrote 22 novels, while her work has been adapted into more than two dozen films and TV series, including The Talented Mr Ripley starring Matt Damon in 1999.

A Talent For Murder director Anton Corbijn admitted that while he did not know a significant amount of Highsmith’s catalogue, he had been drawn to the movies based on her books.

“I know some of her work but because it’s not a biography, I didn’t have to read all her stuff,” he said.

The film takes creative liberties with the story of Highsmith, but ends with a disclaimer that Corbijn said was a requirement.

“It was a condition for us to make the film that her estate insisted on us putting in,” he said.

Corbijn has been the creative director behind the visual output of bands Depeche Mode and U2, directing music videos including Enjoy The Silence, One and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.

Asked if his music direction informed his filmmaking, he said they were “completely different”.

“No, it’s just a different world. I mean, you work with cameras but that’s about the only thing that’s the same.

“If you have great music, you can put any visuals against it because the music will carry you.

“With a movie, you have a story. You have to believe the characters. It’s so different. Music is an afterthought.”

A Talent For Murder also stars House Of The Dragon’s Olivia Cooke as Clementine Balfour, a young American heiress and Edward’s love interest.

A Talent For Murder is released in cinemas on November 20.