British actress Helen McCrory, star of Peaky Blinders, died today at the age of 52. Her husband, fellow actor Damian Lewis, announced her death in a moving Twitter tribute to “the beautiful and powerful woman” who lost her “heroic battle with cancer.”
Just one year ago, Deadline’s Jake Kanter spoke to the A-list couple in the early weeks of the pandemic as part of Deadline’s “Coping With Covid-19 Crisis” series. In a lively and heartwarming interview, the two spoke about their initiative to feed primary health care workers in the UK. In just a few weeks, the duo raised $ 1 million and built a centralized hot meal system that would be delivered to health workers in London.
“We didn’t sleep and we’re on the phone all the time,” McCrory told Deadline in the April 2020 interview. “You improvise and make it up along the way, because it’s never been done before.”
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McCrory was about to start filming Peaky blinders while Lewis was shooting Billions when all Hollywood production ceased in March 2020. The only benefit to the duo was that they had to be home for an unexpected extra time that Lewis and the couple’s two children will cherish after McCrory’s death. “It’s a great opportunity to spend some quality time together,” Lewis told Deadline last April. “Just do things together, play Monopoly, play Risk, plant a hedge, cook together.”
In the interview, McCrory also spoke about season 6 of Peaky blinders which was about to start production when the pandemic hit. She said she spent a day doing hair and makeup and testing for the show, with much of the production team continuing to say that “something really big is on the way.”
“The next morning I woke up and told my producer that I am not comfortable with this anymore … Cillian Murphy did the same,” she said. “Together with the producers, we approached the BBC and said that we are going to do this now before we have to do this later.” Production was discontinued on March 16. “That all seems like a completely different world at the moment. Terribly insignificant, ”McCrory said three weeks later.
Postponed by the pandemic, Peaky Blinders’ the sixth and final season started last January. It’s unclear whether McCrory recorded episodes, but her untimely death will likely alter the final arc of her beloved character, Elizabeth “Polly” Gray.
McCrory also voiced Stelmaria on HBOs Are dark materials. She had not shot any scenes for the upcoming third and final season of the fantasy drama when she died, so unfortunately her voice-over role as Asriel’s daemon will likely be recast.