Dame Helen tones down killer instinct

The Oscar-winning actress said she only wanted to be seen to “partially disable” people when her assassin character Victoria goes on a shooting spree in Red 2.

But Mirren, 67, told Reader’s Digest magazine that she was “fighting a losing battle” with her demands to persuade the director to avoid the killing of innocent bystanders.

She said: “I have this big sequence where I walk into an embassy and start shooting. I kept saying to the director, ‘I will not shoot to kill. I want it to be very clear that I’m not killing people. Please, make it very clear’.”