Helen Mirren tells why The Hundred-Foot Journey offer was just too good to pass up

In The Hundred-Foot Journey, Helen Mirren plays Madame Mallory, a prickly and particular restaurateur who takes overcooked asparagus as a personal affront.

Helen Mirren, left, with The Hundred-Foot Journey director Lasse Halström. Casey Curry / Invision / AP Photo

Helen Mirren lowers her voice to a whisper and her eyes take on a devious twinkle as she makes a confession: when she has a really good time making a movie, as she did on From Bombay to Paris: The Hundred-Foot Journey, she fears: "Oh my God, is it going to suck?"

The 69-year-old dame of the British Empire, who won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth II, also says that when she takes time off from work, she worries that she has forgotten how to act altogether.

Of course, her 45-year career says otherwise.

In The Hundred-Foot Journey, Mirren plays Madame Mallory, a prickly and particular restaurateur who takes overcooked asparagus as a personal affront. Her Michelin-starred restaurant, set in a quaint village that looks like a scene from a postcard, is among the most celebrated in France and Mallory presides unforgivingly over its staff and cuisine. Her chilly demeanour turns icy when an Indian family opens its own restaurant, the colourful Maison Mumbai, right across the road.

Though Mirren was ready for a break after reprising her royal role on the London stage in Peter Morgan's The Audience, she couldn't say no to The Hundred-Foot Journey. Not only was the leadership top-notch – Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey are producers and Lasse Hallström directs – the project allowed Mirren to make good on a lifelong dream. "I've always secretly wanted to be a French actress and never actually managed it," she says.

Adding to the charmed project was its picturesque setting in the south of France – “You’d think you’re in an ad for France, but it’s all real,” says Mirren – and nightly home-made meals by her co-star Om Puri, who plays the patriarch of the Indian family.

“It was one of those absolutely blessed experiences,” says Mirren, the kind that makes her question a film’s quality. But she quashed that fear quickly. “We had Lasse, and Lasse was our secret weapon.”

Hallström says Mirren – in and out of character – added to the magic on the set.

“She’s so smart and skilled,” he says. “She knows every aspect of filmmaking.”

Except how to feel comfortable between projects, it seems. Time off makes her anxious and she fears breaking her concentration and losing the momentum of the character she’s meant to play.

Mirren says that when she sees movies or goes to the theatre, she feels “blown away” by other actors’ work and fearful of her own ability to execute.

“And then maybe I’ve got a project coming up and then I get really nervous because I think: ‘I can’t do that,’ ” says Mirren. “Then, of course, you start and you realise: ‘Oh yes, I can. This is what I do. This is my job.’”