FAST 8 Adds Helen Mirren, Who's Excited to Do Her Own Stunt Driving

Last year, Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren announced her desire to be in a Fast & Furious movie in an interview with Yahoo Movies:

My great ambition is to be in a Fast and Furious movie. I so want to be a mad driver in a Fast and Furious movie. My claim to fame is I always do my own driving — I was on Top Gear, and I did [my lap] in a very good time. I keep putting it out there, and they never ask me. I’ll be in Fast and Furious 8. I have to say Vin Diesel is brilliant. I love Vin Diesel. He’s a great guy, smart — I love him. It’s partly because of him I’d like to be in one, but also the driving.

Good things come to those who wait, because it sounds like she's gotten her wish. In a new interview with Elle, Mirren confirmed her appearance in F. Gary Gray's upcoming sequel Fast 8:

I'm about to do Fast and Furious 8. But that's for the fun of it. So maybe that's what I want as well, some fun and some relevant, serious, important movies.

So you are confirmed to be in 'Fast 8'?

Yes, I am.

Are you a fan of cars?

Well, yes. I've always rather loved driving. I said, 'I'll be in it, but only if I'm allowed to drive if I do drive in it.' But we'll see. We'll see how it transpires.

There's no word about which character Mirren will play, but I can very easily see her as the mother of villains Deckard and Owen Shaw (played by Jason Statham and Luke Evans, respectively), so here's hoping she either has more to do here than just show up in a quick cameo role, or if she does only have a cameo, that it sets her up as a larger character to be reckoned with in Fast 9.