Alec Guinness used to joke that when he passed away the headlines would read ‘Star Wars actor dies,’. Helen Mirren would understand the point he was making. She might have won an Oscar, been made a Dame in 2003 and accomplished so much in her acting career but she reckons that a certain picture will outlive all her professional achievements.

“That bloody photograph of me in a red bikini,” she laughs, “I know that’s going to haunt me forever and I will be forever trying to bury it unsuccessfully.”

The question arose because Mirren’s latest film, The Debt, deals with the consequences of past events for a group of veteran Mossad agents.

They had, in their youth, taken part in a daring mission to capture a former Nazi doctor but, 40 years later, found the ripples from this deed threatening to overturn their ordered lives.

“It’s a great story,” Mirren adds. “And a lovely role, because actors are selfish and self interested and want good roles to play. And then getting to work with a director like John Madden, who I’d worked with on Prime Suspect long before he did Shakespeare In Love. That’s a combination you don’t say no to.”

The thoughtful Madden admits that while the story is a thriller that takes place both in the recent and more distant past there are aspects to it that remain quite sensitive for any storyteller.

Issues surrounding the Holocaust are far too important to be used merely as a punchline.

“It’s a big responsibility,” Madden nods, “it’s the biggest theme in terms of recent modern history, and you owe a debt to take that seriously. Particularly when you’re dealing with a story in a genre which is not famous for moral complexity.

The result of all their efforts is a painstaking tale that delves a lot deeper into the psyches of its characters than your average movie thriller.

This is down to good writing and strong direction of course, as well as good performances from a cast that also includes Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds, Marton Csokas, Sam Worthington and – as the younger version of Mirren’s character Rachel – Jessica Chastain.

“I was really excited when I read the script,” says the actress who was seen in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life earlier this year, and seems on the verge of great things.

“It’s rare to get a script where a woman is allowed to be very strong but at the same time vulnerable. And of course sharing a part with Helen Mirren. You can’t even get close to matching how brilliant she is, but I knew that I just wanted to be around her and soak up her greatness.”

The slew of high profile roles in which Chastain will be seen in the months ahead are, in part, an accident of timing. But as director John Madden notes, it will give everybody plenty of chance to see her talent on the big screen. So how does it feel for her to be touted as the next big thing in Hollywood?

“It really is feast or famine in this business,” she smiles, “I’ve learned that recently. I’ve made 11 films over the past four and a half years and for me it’s all about the experience of making the film because I have no control over how the film turns out.

“I’ve always tried to choose projects that were a type of masterclass for me, that I would leave gaining something from arriving to it. It’s a very strange experience now for me to learn the other side of the profession, the press side of it.

“So I’m still finding my footing with it. In real life my normal, personal life is exactly the same, I never get stopped, I think I’ve been recognised twice.”

After these next few roles they surely will, for Chastain’s screen legacy seems set. Bikini shots notwithstanding.