9:40am Friday 30th July 2010
© Press Association 2011
Dame Helen Mirren has revealed she was keen to star in Red because it had Bruce Willis and guns in it.
The Oscar-winning actress plays CIA agent Victoria in the action movie, based on the graphic novels by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
"It was not The Queen - the appeal was Bruce Willis, an evening dress and a machine gun," she told Collider.com.
She added: "Shooting a gun was all I had to learn, really. That was fun to do and I did it."
The 65-year-old is glad the comic book genre, once solely dominated by teenage boys, is becoming more mainstream.
"I think that it's really exciting to see this world burgeoning, expanding and changing, as it goes into a real, total art form," she continued.
"I think we're at a very exciting point in the whole era, with the whole development of comic books. I'm fascinated to see where it's going to be in another 20 years."
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