Helen Mirren calls Patricia Highsmith her toughest real-life role
Helen Mirren says Patricia Highsmith is probably the most difficult real person she has ever played.
She gave the answer to The Hollywood Reporter at its Studio at 1 Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival. She did not soften it. She described Highsmith as very abrasive and very reclusive.
Mirren plays Highsmith in A Talent for Murder, a thriller from director Anton Corbijn. Highsmith was the American writer behind The Talented Mr. Ripley, the 1955 novel that created Tom Ripley, the charming con artist who has since returned in many films and books. TIFF calls its film a chamber thriller, meaning a tense story built around a small cast in close quarters, and TIFF characterises Highsmith herself as famously charismatic and problematic.
The plot is a battle of wills. Alden Ehrenreich plays a young man sent to Switzerland by Highsmith's New York publisher. His brief is clear. Persuade her to write one more Ripley novel.
Olivia Cooke and Juliet Stevenson also star, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The screenplay is by Joanna Murray-Smith, adapted from her own 2014 play Switzerland.
That earlier title may ring a bell. The project was first announced in February 2023 as Switzerland, with the Oscar winner Mirren attached to play Highsmith, as reported by Deadline. It has since been retitled A Talent for Murder.
The film had its world premiere at TIFF, which named Mirren among its final 2026 Tribute Award recipients. She is the TIFF 51 Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recipient, an honour given to a woman who has helped open doors for others in the screen industry.
The film is scheduled for release in theatres on Oct. 23, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
For audiences, this means a different kind of acting puzzle. There are no big public speeches to study and no newsreel image to copy. The work is in playing a private writer who pushed people away, and finding what drove her to keep writing about charm and crime.
