Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter, CBEis an English actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech. Her other film roles include A Room with a View, Howards End, Fight Club, and playing Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth26 May 1966
CityLondon, England
To understand how you live, to live. Do not think about it and live with it.
I'm often criticised for what I wear. That's my main label in the press now: disastrous dresser!
You just have to do what suits you, and it doesn't matter if you don't look like everybody else. Be you. That's our gift and we've got to celebrate that.
Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?
The parenting bit is much harder than the acting bit. You just never know what to do.
I had never had any experience of autism before and I would come home and look at my son, Billy, who is now two, and be absolutely paranoid, particularly because he loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and lots of autys love Thomas. But he is not very good at pointing, and autistic children absolutely love pointing.
Maybe from now on puppets can do the parts
I was weird right from the start. It's just that you can't ever expect people to get you. And I do think that really did mess with my head, being well-known young, when you really don't know who you are.
It was a challenge to be able to create a character without being able to use one's normal set of expressions. All the rubber and makeup attached to your face left you with only a modest range of facial movements.
Most of my relationships were people in the business. Having said that, me and Tim don't really talk that much about work. He comes into my bit of the house every so often to vent but we don't really have very high, cultured conversations.
I think I've still got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me, because if I'm not going to be restricted by corsets and covered in lace, then I still wind up wearing an ape-mask over my face. I do wonder how I get myself in these situations!
I was reading William Shawcross's biography of the Queen Mother, dressed in my witch outfit! And you know what? It was a really good mix; it was a therapeutic mix.
J.K. Rowling said Bellatrix's role was going to be significant in the last one, when I showed some reluctance in playing a tiny bit part. Up front, they said, 'You're very significant in the last one.' But significant could mean a lot of things. That could just mean a significant plot point. Doesn't necessarily equal big part.
I've never had white teeth. To be honest, I've never been told to do any of those horrible things - get your teeth whitened or your nose straightened.