This week sees the opening of Love Ranch , the long-delayed, fact-based retelling of the life and times of the first legal brothel in the United States. And this year sees the 30th anniversary of Caligula , a movie whose A-list depravity first arrived on these shores in February 1980. What do they have in common? Dame Helen Mirren, who stars as Love Ranch ‘s willful, no-nonsense madam Grace Bontempo and appeared as Caesonia — the courtesan who bears the mad emperor’s (played by Malcolm McDowell) child — in the notorious, massively expensive film whose power struggles involved everyone from Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione to screenwriter Gore Vidal to top-shelf English talent like McDowell, Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O’T oole. Reached today to discuss Love Ranch , the Oscar-winner indulged Moveline’s flashback.
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EXCLUSIVE: Helen Mirren on Three Decades of the ‘Visceral,’ ‘Flawed’ Caligula