British icon Helen Mirren’s post-9/11 epiphany: ‘I’m an American’
nypost.comSept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.”The Queen” actress holds dual American and British citizenships, becoming a USA passport holder in 2017. “My husband [Taylor Hackford] is American.
My stepchildren are obviously American. My nephew lived in America, worked in America,” she told People in a revealing new profile. “So I had certainly been an American resident for a very long time.”The outspoken Dame went on to recount that she was in New York City during the 9/11 devastation, rehearsing the Broadway play “Dance of Death” with fellow Brit Ian McKellen at the time.
Mirren recalled that she actually saw the second tower fall.After the traumatic event, she said she had an ” epiphany,” adding, ”I realized where my allegiance and my heart and my intellect lay in that confrontation between extremism, religiosity — all those things and everything that America represents.”“And I thought, ‘I’m an American,’ ” Mirren said. “I got an American flag, and I put it outside my window.”The “F9” star continued, “When I understood, which I hadn’t quite grasped before, that I could be a British citizen and an American citizen — because I would not like to give up my British citizenship — then I thought, ‘Well, that’s great.
That’s the perfect world.’ “Mirren noted that it was “so moving” when she finally received her American citizenship. “I didn’t realize how profound a feeling it would be,” she explained. “It brought up feelings of patriotism that I didn’t think I had.
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