The Crown star Helena Bonham Carter started acting at 13 to ‘invent her own life’ and escape the sadness of her father becoming paralysed
TO say Helena Bonham Carter is one of Holly-wood’s most quirky characters is an under-statement.
She has made a career of playing oddballs and baddies and never shies away from an outrageous fashion statement on the red carpet — or while fetching milk from her local shop in her PJs.
But having racked up 90 films over four decades, the London-born actress will not be changing her ways — even if people think her “weird”.
Asked if the putdown bothers her, she says: “I don’t care any more. I used to. It’s the only way to survive.
It’s none of my business to know what people think of me. It’s what other people want me to be.”
Helena, 53, will next be seen playing the late Princess Margaret in Netflix royal drama The Crown’s third series, which starts next month.
Her preparation has been as eccentric as her wardrobe — she has for some time used a psychic to “talk to”, then channel, any dead people she plays in movies, and did so again here.
The Sun revealed how she got “permission” to take on the role when she contacted Margaret beyond the grave in a séance — also getting tips on how to play the princess, including the right way to use a cigarette holder.
Helena also gets into a character’s mind by using a graphologist to analyse their handwriting — and has spoken to those who knew Margaret.
Indeed, she has impressive connections. Her uncle Mark, the late Liberal MP, once dated Margaret when a Grenadier Guard in Windsor shortly after World War Two.
Helena — awarded a CBE in 2011 for services to drama — says: “I met friends that really knew her. That’s the closest you’ll get to authenticity. They couldn’t have been more happy.
"They loved her. There are a couple of relatives and close friends. They were happy to talk because they miss her.”
But playing the Queen’s younger sister — who died in 2002, aged 71 — was for Helena a world away from the many villainous roles that have helped make her name.
These darker turns include Mrs Lovett, barber’s assistant in 2007 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, murderous Bellatrix Lestrange in 2007’s Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and the cruel foster mum Madame Thenardier in West End musical Les Miserables.
Helena’s meticulous research is perhaps one of the reasons for the longevity of her career.
She first ventured into acting as a form of teenage escapism and quest for identity — driven also by her unique take on fashion.
Interviewed at the Cheltenham Literary Festival last weekend, Helena revealed she suffers from dysmorphia — a condition she shares with Johnny Depp, who has been in many films by Tim Burton, her former lover and dad of her two children.
She says: “It’s a release to be someone else, I want to get out of myself. Dressing up is fun. When I go shopping I think, ‘that dress is going to transform me’. A lot of it is dysmorphia, in a way I couldn’t wait to play other people.
“Johnny Depp and me are similar, we put too much on to camouflage us. Tim gets irritated with us because we turn up on the first day of filming with tons of make-up. He’d say, ‘Way too much. Who the f*** are you?’.”
Helena got into acting in a bid to break free from the heartache of seeing her disabled dad descend into depression.
High-flying banker Raymond was diagnosed with a brain tumour but an op to remove it went wrong, leaving him quadriplegic and partially blind. Helena was just 13 at the time.
She says: “He was an amazing man with amazing determination. He had this alphabet board to talk with. Instead of answering with ‘no’ or ‘yes’ he would answer in an incredibly long sentence. But he had depression and felt terribly guilty that he was a burden.
“My way of coping at 13 was I found an agent. I thought, ‘f*** this, I’m going to invent my own life’. It was a refusal to accept what happened.”
Helena never went to drama school yet made her professional acting debut at age 16 in a TV advert, followed by a small part in kids’ TV film A Pattern Of Roses, about a ghost.
Her big break came in 1986, when she landed the lead in costume romance Lady Jane — but her career really took off when she linked up with super-director Burton.
They worked together nine times from 2001’s Planet Of The Apes with Mark Wahlberg — in which she plays chimpanzee scientist Ari — right up until 2016’s Alice Through The Looking Glass, two years after they ended their relationship.
She rates their first film as her worst ever. She says: “Planet Of The Apes was really bad. I knew the script wasn’t good but I had to do it. I’d never be a chimpanzee again. I went to chimpanzee school.”
Her run of evil roles, mainly under Burton, led to her being typecast — which she didn’t mind, despite missing out on other parts.
She says: “When you start off acting you don’t have a choice. If you’re going to get any flow of jobs, you’re inevitably going to get typecast.
“I didn’t know who the hell I was for a long time. I still don’t but I know it doesn’t matter. I was lucky with all those literary adaptations. I’ve always wanted to be a character.”
Indeed, her brilliance at playing the downright dastardly helped her land some major-league gigs — including in the Harry Potter movie saga.
She claims Potter author J.K. Rowling initially said her role would feature four lines — and she ended up in four movies.
And Rowling was not the only member of the Harry Potter community on whom she made a lasting impression. Step forward Neville Longbottom, the Hogwarts pupil tortured by Helena’s character Ms Lestrange. Helena says: “I perforated Neville’s ear by putting a wand in it.”
Burton, who Helena dated for 13 years, is not the only director she has been romantically involved with.
In 1994, while starring in his film Frankenstein, she had an affair with Kenneth Branagh while he was married to Brit actress Emma Thompson. The couple divorced the following year.
Both women have since played down the affair, with Emma insisting there are “no hard feelings” and Helena calling it “blood under the bridge”.
Asked what it was like working with Branagh while also sleeping with him, Helena said: “Complicated. He’s a very clever man and was a really good actors’ director. I had a lot of confusion.
"It didn’t break me but did affect me. But that was my own making too. You do things and don’t necessarily think.”
My beast and worst
WORST FILM: Planet Of The Apes (2001): “It was really bad. I knew the script wasn’t good but I had to do it. I’d never be a chimpanzee again. I went to chimpanzee school.”
SURPRISE HIT: Ocean’s 8 (2018) with Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett): “This film was unbelievably unfun. But though it was quite laborious, it looked great.”
SURPRISE FLOP: 55 Steps (2017):
“It was worse than a flop as it never came out. It’s the best thing I’ve done.”
FAVOURITE CO-STAR: Dominic West, Burton And Taylor, 2013.
FAVOURITE DIRECTOR: Jessica Hobbs (The Crown, 2019).
WORST DIRECTOR: “I remember two. Trouble is, you work with directors who aren’t experienced. These two weren’t.”
Live At Cheltenham Literature Festival’ showcases the highlights from the festival every night this week on Sky Arts from 7-10pm.
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