Helen Mirren is excited to show off dangerous side, shoot gun in 'Red 2'

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Helen Mirren, action hero

English actress stars in 'Red 2'

She’s played The Queen, been appointed a Dame, and won an Academy Award. Now Helen Mirren is out to prove she’s a summer box office action-star too. Mirren is returning to a role that has allowed her to show off a very dangerous side of herself. The veteran actress talked to FOX411 about her action-comedy sequel “Red 2.”

FOX411: What has this franchise allowed you to do that no other project has given you the chance to do before?
Mirren: Shoot a big ass gun (laughs). I've never done that before.  Also… I just love this project. I'm not saying this is all I want to do for the rest of my life, but within the context with everything else I do it’s just the greatest. I love it. I was thrilled that it was going to become a franchise because obviously when we did the first one there was no understanding of that at all. It was a one off. So it's fantastic we got the opportunity to do it the second time.

FOX411: What does it mean to you [to reunite with] a lot of your cast members?
Mirren: You know it's like meeting up with your best friends from college that you haven’t seen for 30 or 40 years. Although it’s not that long since we were together but it’s… like we were working together the day before yesterday. And I think that's an indication of how happy we were working together in the first place.

FOX411: What do you think [of the fact that] at this point in your career you’re getting to be in a movie trailer where you have this slo-mo, no holds barred car chase?
Mirren: You know life is a constant surprise. Just be prepared because life is always going to take you by surprise and this one took me surprise for sure.

FOX411: Do you feel at this point you can choose who you want to work with, what you want to work on?
Mirren: Projects, you never know where the next project is going to come from, who it’s going to come from, so it's not like you can go – oh I want to do that. You just hope that interesting projects will come, but in reality great scripts are very rare and great casts are pretty rare. Making a movie is like incredible cuisine, the right ingredients come together and it's kind of magic.