Brangelina who? The power couple packing them in at the 92ndStreetY Monday night was none other than Helen Mirren and her husband, director Taylor Hackford.
Ms. Mirren was introduced as the Oscar winner who has redefined women over 50 as "not musty but lusty," bringing her "vitality, beauty, talent and yes, sensuality" to stage and screen.
The actress embodied all that as she strode on stage in a delicate floral print of long-stemmed red blooms scattered randomly on a ground of vivid white. Multi strands of white pearls, an opaque white tie-front cardigan and red kitten-heel slides completed the fresh, ladylike look.
Taylor Hackford, her partner of 25 years, best known for films like An Officer and a Gentleman and the Oscar-laden Ray, settled in next to his wife to discuss their latest collaboration, Love Ranch, a film set in 1970s Reno revolving around prostitution and prizefighting.
But "latest" is a relative term. The last time they worked together was when they met on the set of White Nights in 1985, which he was directing. They moved in together shortly after and married in 1997.
As they recalled how they film came together, casting Joe Pesci and newcomer Sergio Peris-Mencheta, they didn't so much complete each other's sentences as complement each other's conversation and augment each other's memories.
The only danger, Hackford notes in an interview with Moveline, "is that we know each other so well …" citing the familiarity of a long-term relationship,
…we all have our eccentricities or sameyness that are in our styles of speech. ….[] they have a way of tuning us out. That's a dangerous situation for an actor and a director."
In fact, there's perhaps an advantage here over other professions (and maybe a valuable takeaway) — you have to listen with "fresh ears" in order for the work to work. He says she gave him "ultimate respect" as a director, and calls her the best actress in world.
For her part, Mirren, in Movieline, who calls him "my noble husband," says that although she "hadn't been longing to work with him" there was another consideration.
Our professional lives have mandated that we spend a lot of time away from each other. … Otherwise, if I was working, I wasn't with him. If I was with him, then I wasn't working. So it's lovely to be working with him and working."
Indeed, the audience seem keenly interested in how they worked together as a married couple.
They sit down very few months and review their schedules, she said. They also always recognized that they were passionate about what they do — and that its a vital part of who they are and what they love about each other. "We give each other the freedom to work."
Hackford adds that if someone says "you're doing that to not be with me, that relationship can't last."
Mirren underscored that "we don't criticize each other's work professionally," and cited how supportive her husband is. Indeed, we saw him at her side at all the award shows as she racked up the statuettes in recent years.
He admits he's proud of her success, and also glad that it's come when it has.
The discussion brought to mind the section on marriage in Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.
Sing and dance together but let each of you be alone…For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
Hackford concluded that when you're young you're looking for the perfect relationship but later "when you find somebody, it may not be perfect but it's absolutely right."
Or as my friend Carol muses, the relationship deepens beyond mere hormonal fluctuation, and that's when the real love can flourish.