Mirren was 'arrogant' in meeting with Hitchcock

Helen Mirren has admitted that she behaved arrogantly when she met with the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock.

She was sent for a preliminary meeting for a role in the film 'Frenzy', but says that she didn't even want the part in the first place.

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“When I was a very young actress, just starting out, I was sent for an audition - or a meeting with him. I don't think he would have auditioned me; I think he either thought you looked right or you didn't,” she told The Huffington Post.

“I was arrogant and ignorant and, at that time, he was just not my kind of film director. I was into Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini; those were the directors I loved. I was, you know, as one is when one is young, just ridiculously self-opinionated.

“So, I didn't really like him, and I know he didn't like me very much. He certainly didn't cast me. He took one look at me and went, 'Oh, good God. She's going to be a nightmare'."

Mirren is currently doing the promotional rounds for her role in forthcoming biopic 'Hitchcock', in which she plays the director's long-suffering wife Alma opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins.

It's thought that her turn may earn her a nomination in the Best Actress category at next year's Oscars.

The film is directed by Sacha Gervasi, who helmed the acclaimed documentary 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil', and covers the period when Hitchcock risked his career to make his classic thriller 'Psycho'.

Out on February 8, it also stars Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette and Jessica Biel.