Helen Mirren has taken part in Dolce & Gabbana’s new ‘Made at Home’ series, which hopes to highlight and explore how the shared experience of lockdown has united us all. For her part in the fundraising project, the British actress filmed herself reading ‘Now Is the Time’, a poem by Hafez.

“I’m going to read you a poem by a Sufi poet, a Persian poet, called Hafez, who lived in the 12th century,” Mirren says. “It’s incredible the way his words have such power and meaning for a soul today, particularly at this moment in time when the whole world is experiencing what we’re experiencing.”

Mirren’s poetry reading is part of Dolce & Gabbana’s attempt to celebrate the creativity that can be found, even through this difficult period, in our own homes.
“In a time when our values have slowed, shifted and deepened, ‘Made at Home’ reveals the power of craft and creativity to articulate love, closeness and care,” the brand said in a press release.

The project will also support the Fondazione Humanitas Per La Ricerca and is an extension of Dolce & Gabbana’s ongoing ‘Amore For Scientific Research’ project with Humanitas University, which was founded in February via a significant financial contribution from the house. It aims to support the vital research co-ordinated by Professor Mantovani to clarify the responses of the human immune system to Covid-19.

“We felt we had to do something to fight this devastating virus, which started from China but is threatening all mankind,” the house said in a statement at the time. “In these cases, it is important to make the right choice. This is why we thought Humanitas University would be the ideal partner, whose excellence and humanity make it a special entity, with which we have already co-operated on a scholarship project.”