{"id":259710,"date":"2026-08-26T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/first-look-helen-mirren-captures-the-difficult-genius-of-patricia-highsmith-in-a-talent-for-murder\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:30:00","slug":"first-look-helen-mirren-captures-the-difficult-genius-of-patricia-highsmith-in-a-talent-for-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/first-look-helen-mirren-captures-the-difficult-genius-of-patricia-highsmith-in-a-talent-for-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look: Helen Mirren Captures the Difficult Genius of Patricia Highsmith in \u2018A Talent for Murder\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Mirren studied photos and a few videos of Highsmith that she found online\u2014\u201cGod bless YouTube,\u201d she says\u2014to get to know the character. She was especially struck by a video<\/a> from when Highsmith appeared on the late-night TV show After Dark<\/em> in 1988. She was with another guest whose daughter had been murdered. \u201cShe has this very disturbing interest in this man\u2019s backstory of a member of his family being killed, and it\u2019s very uncomfortable,\u201d says Mirren. \u201cShe was very much betraying herself at that moment\u2014or maybe playing the role of Patricia Highsmith.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mirren also discovered a softer side to Highsmith through her research. \u201cShe would fall absolutely, obsessively, madly, insanely in love with women,\u201d she says. \u201cSo there was a great vulnerability in her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Olivia Cooke plays a woman who meets Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) on a train in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Mirren physically transforms for the role, donning Highsmith\u2019s short bob and her staple wardrobe of loose sweaters, oversized jackets, and button-down shirts. While watching the videos, Mirren noticed Highsmith\u2019s neck. \u201cShe had this sort of slightly hunched look about her, always,\u201d says Mirren, who had pads added into the shoulders of her costume to create the same effect. \u201cIt was brilliant. It really, really worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

She filmed all of her scenes in two weeks, mostly at a house in England, which she describes as \u201cgloomy and weird.\u201d Corbin says Mirren exceeded his high expectations, especially in the way she and Ehrenreich would face off in these battles of wit and manipulation. As the story progresses, Highsmith says she will only consider the very eager literary agent\u2019s proposal if he helps her come up with a perfect murder.<\/p>\n

Where the story goes from there should be left for audiences to discover on their own, but thanks to Mirren\u2019s captivating and playful performance as Highsmith, A Talent For Murder<\/em> becomes an unexpected way to honor her legacy. \u201cWe always want great artists to be a great person, and great artists are very often not great people at all,\u201d says Mirren. \u201cAnd this time it doesn\u2019t take anything away from their greatness. If anything, maybe it adds to their greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mirren studied photos and a few videos of Highsmith that she found online\u2014\u201cGod bless YouTube,\u201d she says\u2014to get to know the character. She was especially struck by a video from when Highsmith appeared on the late-night TV show After Dark in 1988. She was with another guest whose daughter had been murdered. \u201cShe has this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1575,239,16619,3687],"class_list":{"0":"post-259710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-first-look","9":"tag-helen-mirren","10":"tag-patricia-highsmith","11":"tag-toronto-film-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}