Helen Mirren Had a Confrontation With a Literal Bear

Dame Helen Mirren, the award-winning star of stage and screen, had a bear encounter and shared the tale during the SAG Awards, telling everyone how she kept her composure and tact while enforcing social distancing rules with literal bear. 

During the virtual telecast, at which Mirren was a presenter, the 75-year-old actor reflected on her love of wildlife, including birds, chipmunks and squirrels. She recalled that her most difficult acting experience was improvising while on camelback, and then almost casually added that during quarantine she had “a bit of a meeting with a bear.”

“I was so excited to see a bear, but then, of course, you can’t allow bears to get too familiar with human beings because they are wild animals. So I chased him away,” said Mirren, who apparently felt no fear at all. “I shooed the bear away. I told him he was a naughty bear. He was a young bear, so I just said, ‘No, naughty bear, go on, go on, off you go!’” But was he a naughty bear? Or was he just a fan who wanted to ask her a couple questions about filming The Queen?

Ever polite, Mirren explained, “You’re supposed to make yourself as big as possible and say, ‘Bad bear! Bad bear!’ ‘Cause it was not a big bear—it was a smaller bear—so I just said, ‘You naughty bear, go on. Go away!'” Taking this energy into the summer.

We’re all thinking the same thing, right? Get Helen Mirren in the upcoming third Paddington movie immediately. There is simply no better small bear than our beloved Paddington, and now that Mirren has actual IRL bear experience, the time has absolutely come to get her into this franchise. Marmalade sandwiches for everyone. We need, need to see it. So many Oscars incoming!