Watch Helen Mirren Expertly Wheedle Bryan Cranston in an Exclusive Clip From Trumbo

Hedda Hopper made a career out of getting intel about big Hollywood names— and in an exclusive clip from the new movie Trumbo, Helen Mirren expertly channels Hopper’s cunning persistence.

Hopper—who was once profiled on the cover of TIME—ruffled feathers with her famous gossip columns and notoriously named names during the blacklisting era. One prominent victim of the anti-Communist sentiment of the period: Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted but won two Academy Awards for screenplays he wrote under pseudonyms, Roman Holiday and The Brave One.

The biopic about Trumbo’s life opens in theaters Nov. 6.