Versatility is Mirren's crowning achievement

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Dame Helen Mirren may have a regal air about her. And she may have played some of history's greatest royals -- both real and imagined. But don't typecast the British actress.

"I'd like to point out I haven't just played queens," she says quickly on being asked about some of her most famous roles.

Of course not. Miss Mirren is probably best known as the tough-talking Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison on TV's "Prime Suspect." She's also played a servant (in 2001's "Gosford Park"), a contract killer (2006's "Shadowboxer") and a teacher (1999's "Teaching Mrs. Tingle").

But she is the only actress to play both Queen Elizabeths. She played the first in her Emmy-winning turn in HBO's 2005 miniseries, "Elizabeth I." She plays the second in "The Queen," a film about the royal family's response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, which premiered Tuesday and opens in general release today. She's played other monarchs, too, including Queen Charlotte in 1994's "The Madness of King George."

Being the go-to actress for classy and dignified can't be all bad. Miss Mirren admits, "I think if I was going to be typecast as anything, I wouldn't mind being typecast as queens."

"The Queen" marks the first time she plays a reigning monarch.

"I didn't talk to anyone who knew her because I didn't know anyone who knew her. Those people are extremely protected," she says of her research, which consisted mostly of tapes and books. "I have to say, with the queen, it seems that anyone who knew her had very little criticism of her, considering how critical other people are about her. That's including people who had no particular reason to be sycophantic. We reflect that in the film, with the relationship Tony Blair has with her."

Still, she reveals, playing a living queen was "intimidating and frightening and challenging; within its own little world, kind of dangerous."

Never mind that her portrayal would be closely watched by the most powerful people in Britain. How many actresses would hide such earthy sex appeal behind white wigs and dowdy clothes?

"I'm of an age that that sort of thing, I let go of a long time ago," says the 61-year-old actress, who looks much younger. "However, you don't often get to play someone with as high a profile and quite as little personal vanity as the queen has. I think that's a very important part of her psychology."