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
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.
Everybody has an inferiority complex when they step into a room. But then when you have children and you get older, it doesn't really matter. When I was young I had so many inferiority complexes. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't go to university. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't train.
She looks like a warrior. I mean, Bellatrix does mean warrior. And she's also a bit of a fatale. She's the right hand of Voldemort, and the only woman death eater.
Wearing corsets all the time was completely incapacitating, as far as digestion goes.
My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family, it went into sudden widescreen.
I'm drawn to emotionally damaged characters because there is more to unlock.
I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I'm quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles.
The problems come when your personal life and relationships come under scrutiny in the press and often very uncomplimentary things are printed about you.
I have to struggle to change people's perceptions of me. I grew very frustrated with the perception that I'm this shy, retiring, inhibited aristocratic creature when I'm absolutely not like that at all. I think I'm much more outgoing and exuberant than my image.
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.
I don't think kids have a problem with death. It's us older ones who are nearer to it, that start being frightened.
Journalists are always calling my features Edwardian or Victorian, whatever that means. I am small, and people were smaller in those times. I'm pale and sickly-looking. I look fragile-like a doll. But sometimes I just wish I had less of a particular look, one that was more versatile.
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 the kind of actor who has ventured into escaping from me.