“What made me finally relax is that during one of the moments we were showing clips, [Helen Mirren] reached out for my hand and squeezed it and said I was doing a good job. Can you believe that?! At the end of the tribute, right before Bill Macy was to come out, the lights dimmed. She once again reached for my hand and squeezed it. ‘This was lovely,’ she said. ‘Once in a lifetiime, thank you.’ I looked up, and she had tears in her eyes.” — Santa Barbara Film Festival director Roger Durling, writing on his festival blog about last night’s Mirren tribute at the Arlington.
