Highlights
- Helen Mirren, 80, was accosted on a London street by a pro-Palestine activist who called her an “evil Zionist bitch.”
- The viral video shows Mirren’s husband, director Taylor Hackford, firing back at the man to “f–k off.”
- The confrontation stems from Mirren’s 2023 comments expressing support for Israel’s right to exist
Dame Helen Mirren was just trying to take a walk. Instead, she got an earful.
The Oscar-winning actress was accosted on the streets of East London Wednesday (May 27, 2026) when a pro-Palestine activist got in her face — and the whole ugly scene was caught on video.
The incident unfolded in the Tower Hill neighborhood, where the 80-year-old star was out with her husband, director Taylor Hackford, 81. At first, Mirren was reportedly polite, greeting the man and asking if he was okay. That pleasantry didn’t last long.
The anonymous man filmed himself launching into a tirade over the actress’s public support for Israel, calling her “the avowed Zionist” before unleashing on her directly.
“And there’s Helen Mirren, the avowed Zionist. She’s said, ‘Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust,'” the person behind the camera can be heard saying. “And she was very happy the Palestinians’ houses were gone. You put the post up, you evil old bag. You’re an evil Zionist bitch. And you as well, f–k you all.”
Hackford wasn’t having any of it. The director fired back with a simple, “Oh, f–k off.”
Actress Helen Mirren in East London yesterday gets called a zionist bitch pic.twitter.com/CO8TLLIhaU
— London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) May 28, 2026The clip was originally posted to Instagram on May 27 by an anonymous account calling itself Anti-Fascist Action UK, which took responsibility for the video. It spread fast after London & UK Street News shared it on X, racking up widespread attention — and widespread outrage.
“This is absolutely appalling,” the Campaign Against Antisemitism posted on Thursday (May 28, 2026) in response to the clip.
The confrontation was rooted in comments Mirren made back in 2023, when she was in Israel to promote her film Golda, in which she portrayed former Prime Minister Golda Meir. In an interview, Mirren — who is not Jewish — said that she believed “in the existence of Israel” and its right to exist “because of the Holocaust,” and spoke out against cultural boycotts of the Jewish state, saying it “didn’t seem right” to abandon Israeli artists.
“I believe in Israel, in the existence of Israel, and I believe Israel has to go forward into the future, for the rest of eternity,” she said at the time. “I believe in Israel because of the Holocaust.”
She also didn’t shy away from acknowledging complexity. “I witnessed things that were wrong,” she said of visiting Israel. “I saw Arabs being thrown out of their houses in Jerusalem.”
The clip went viral this week, though it’s actually a resurfaced clip that was first shared in November — that didn’t stop people from finding renewed outrage in it.
More recently, Mirren has continued to be publicly vocal. She joined the likes of Gene Simmons, Mila Kunis, Scooter Braun, Amy Schumer, and Sharon Osbourne in signing an open letter in support of Israel participating in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest — a direct counter to a separate letter signed by Paul Weller, Kneecap, and Massive Attack calling for a boycott.
Over the years, the actress has also portrayed several famous Jewish figures, including Maria Altmann in Woman in Gold and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 2023’s Golda.
People rushed to defend the Dame online, with the clip sparking widespread condemnation of the activist’s behavior. As of publication, Mirren has not publicly commented on the video.
