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
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.
Usually I'm frustrated when I look at my films and I don't believe that I've made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it's me, that I didn't create a unique character.
What I loved about playing the corpse is that obviously somebody else got to do the physical part. It appeals to the part of me that likes playing character parts and getting the chance to get away from my own physicality.
You learn to rely on a few basic movements and use your voice to the greatest extent possible to convey your emotions. So there was a technical challenge there and a responsibility to create a character from behind the mask.
I'm drawn to emotionally damaged characters because there is more to unlock.
It's easy for me to go back to being a kid. You know how kids can be like savages before they get civilized? There's that sadist quality. Y'know, like boys who like to pick apart an insect for the sake of it.
Well, at least I'm not too thin. I eat.
My mom being a psychotherapist, I've been brought up with that whole psychoanalytical terrain.
I never really wanted to grow up. I grew up really young. I moved out when I was 13 - that's when I started acting.
I'm a late developer. I only moved out of home when I was 30.
I don't think any actor wants their children to follow them into the profession.
In any relationship, after the first year is over, you can't help but want your own space.
It didn't matter what you look like. You don't have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and there's a lot to be said for that. Corpse Bride can just play all my parts from now on and I'll just do the voice.
A lot of times in this business, it's so transitory - it's just 10 weeks here or there on a movie and then it's over - but to see the same people over all that time, a decade, makes you feel really safe and secure.