As those who have watched "1923" Season 1 will likely attest, Cara Dutton's Irish backstory is one of the most memorable and defining aspects of her character. The origin of Cara's Irish roots isn't the only surprising aspect of the character's creation, though. Indeed, Helen Mirren revealed to Deadline that Sheridan hadn't even written a script for "1923" yet when he approached her to star in the series.
As a result, Mirren admits that she was initially taken aback when she was offered her "1923" role. It was only after she learned more about Sheridan's process that she began to understand why she had been approached so early on in the development stage. "The answer came back, 'Well, Sheridan likes to write for the people he knows who are playing the roles,' which seemed to me a very sensible way of approaching it," Mirren recalled. "So I said, 'If that's the case then I should meet Sheridan' because maybe after he met me, he won't want to write a role for me at all. He should know who I am."
Mirren ultimately ended up signing on to the project, and in an interview with The Wrap, she revealed that she partly did so because of the involvement of her "Mosquito Coast" co-star, Harrison Ford. "That immediately raised the stakes enormously high," Mirren noted. While agreeing to star in "1923" may have required a bit of a leap of faith on Mirren's part, too, she seems happy now with the decision she made.
Mirren revealed as much to The Wrap, telling the outlet, "Now [that] I'm in the middle of it, I'm so grateful for the fact that I'm involved and that this will become a very important part of my filmography."
