“I did what I did, and I wouldn’t have had any of it any other way.” In short, don’t cross Helen Mirren when Helen Mirren has the throne. In a trailer for HBO’s expensive-looking period drama Catherine the Great, Helen Mirren’s 18th-century Russian empress molds her country into a future world power alongside lover and military commander (emphasis on the lover, based on this trailer) Grigory Potemkin, played by a scarred, mustachioed Jason Clarke. This is the kind of woman who would slap Mary Louise’s cross necklace right off her chin. Catherine the Great premieres October 21.
