‘F9’s’ Helen Mirren Loves to Go ‘Pedal to the Metal’! Plus: She Reacts to Viral Bear Video

Dame Helen Mirren is getting the billboard treatment! She’s all business towering over L.A.’s famed Sunset Strip for the latest “Fast and Furious” installment “F9” with Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron and John Cena.

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour caught up with Mirren, and pointed out, “There you are!” and Helen replied, “There I am. I love the expression on my face.” Terri told her, “Amazing… You mean business.”

The 75-year-old returns as the Shaw family matriarch Magdalene when “F9” welcomes fans back into theaters this summer. Mirren commented, “What a brilliant way to welcome the audiences back into the cinema with a real sort of, you know, fabulous, fabulous ride.”

Terri asked, “How is your driving in real life?”

Helen said with a smile, “I’m very arrogant about my driving.” Laughing, she added, “Proud, prideful, probably not very good, but I think I’m a fabulous driver, you know.”

Terri wanted to know, “Are you a steady driver?” Helen replied, “I’ve become a much more steady driver than I used to be, but I do love driving fast if I’m in a safe and legal situation to drive fast. I love to, you know, pedal to the metal, absolutely in a car that responds, nothing like it, yeah.”

And after Helen gets “Fast and Furious” she’s set to star as the main villain Hespera in “Shazam 2.”

Mirren dished, “I haven’t started yet, so we’ll see, we’ll see… I think it’s going to be hard work for sure, but the great thing about these movies is you’re working with such amazing individuals.”

It can’t be harder than chasing a bear away, as she did during quarantine at her Lake Tahoe home.

She revealed, “The bear did come back, actually, and I told her she was a naughty bear again, and she was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go away’ and she went off.”

Calling the teen who recently fended off a bear from her dogs “brave,” Mirren said, “You totally understood the bear’s point of view because she was protecting her cubs,” while pointing out the girl was also being protective over her pups.

“It was very, very cool. It made you very proud of female bears and female humans.”