AceShowbiz - Helen Mirren has given Prince Harry her blessing as he prepares to marry former actress Meghan Markle later this month, insisting she's a big fan. The actress, who won an Oscar for playing the groom-to-be's grandmother in "The Queen", admits she really likes Harry's royal bride, who turned her back on acting last year (2017) to become a royal.

"I think she has been utterly gracious and elegant," the great Brit tells news show Entertainment Tonight. "I don't mean elegant in her clothes - of course she's elegant there, too. But elegant as a person."

And she thinks Meghan and Harry make a lovely couple. "I'm full of optimism (for them)," she says. "It will work wonderfully well."

But the 72-year-old won't be among the ex-patriots living in Hollywood, who will be getting up before dawn to watch the couple exchange vows at St George's Chapel in Windsor, England on May 19.

The service will begin at midday local time.

"I like a wedding and weddings always make me cry, but it's not something I'm hugely committed to," she explains to the outlet. "I'll watch it on the news or something, but I certainly won't get up at four in the morning (Los Angeles time) for it."

And she's happy to watch the royals from afar these days after playing Queen Elizabeth II twice - in "The Queen" and onstage in The Audience - confessing she has no plans to play the monarch again.

"I wanted to kind of get away from that. I like to move forward, not back," she recently said. "It's wonderful that I (portrayed Queen Elizabeth twice), it was wonderful that it was a success, but I didn't want (a) headline when I'm knocked over by a bus (to read): 'The Queen Knocked Over by Bus'."