Helen Mirren: 'I want to play a James Bond baddie'

Helen Mirren has set her sights on another villainous role - she wants to go toe to toe with James Bond.

The actress won her uncredited role as vicious Magdalene Shaw in the Fast & Furious franchise by going after star and producer Vin Diesel and demanding he cast her, and now she has put the Bond producers on notice she wants to play 007's nemesis.

The Oscar winner, who is playing a villain again in the new movie The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, insists the time is right for a woman to play a Bond baddie.

"Women get to play much cooler villains these days," she says. "I’ve always had a secret ambition to play a villain in a James Bond movie."

But she tells Harper's Bazaar the role would be a big leap of faith for her, adding, "I consider myself a scaredy-cat... I’m constantly nervous. I'm always worried that I’m not going to do it right. But you have to just jump and then the adrenaline kicks in."

As well as The Nutcracker, the great Dame has a handful of movies coming out in the next year. These include Berlin, I Love You, Anna, and The Good Liar, while she will also be playing Catherine the Great in a much-anticipated new TV Series about the Russian royal family.

Mirren, whose family hails from Russia, loved playing another queen after her Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, but she insists Catherine will be her last royal.

After playing Elizabeth on the big screen and again onstage in The Audience, Mirren admits she's not actually a big fan of the royal family - but she loves the Queen.

"I don’t care that much, though I do watch The Crown," she tells the publication. "In her old age, she (the Queen) has that indomitable spirit. I love her. I’m not a royalist; I’m a queenist."