Hollywood Flashback: Before 'The Crown', Imelda Staunton as Commoner Vera Drake

Imelda Staunton, who will become the third actress to play Queen Elizabeth II on the hit Netflix series on November 9 The Crown (also the first character to play her after her death), in as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Nurse with Viola Gets Hollywood’s Attention ‘s Shakespeare in Love . But this is her Vera Drake 1950 built Staunton, then , as a talent that cannot be ignored.

Directed by British director Mike Leigh, this film tells the story of a man living in The story of a humble woman in London. . Her day job was housekeeping; but on the other hand, unknown to her husband and children, she performed abortions for young women. There is no charge for her act (as far as she knows – one of Vera’s collaborators is charging clients behind her back), and she performs it through a dangerous technique that includes syringes, carbon soap, and sanitizer . As she told the inspector when she was arrested, she did it because the women “needed help. Who else would they turn to? No one.”

with Leigh Like all films, the script was completed after six months of impromptu rehearsals. The actors who played Vera’s family didn’t even know she had an abortion in the movie — until the day they rehearsed for the police raid on her home. The performance earned Staunton an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA Award and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actress.

“It’s a very thought-provoking subject,” Staunton told THR ahead of the film’s release. “It’s very personal, intimate, complex and emotional. The film looks at this incredibly sad topic with sympathy on both sides. There’s no religion or politics per se; Abortion, legal or illegal, has always been with us. It will always be with us.”

Since then, Staunton has been steadily in film, television and theater work, but is still known to a global audience as Dolores Umbridge, who was in 2007 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .