Helena Bonham Carter recently sat down with The Guardian and explained her stance of divorce: cruel, but with plenty of upsides. She also opened up about appearances, her career and her relationship with the press.
Bonham Carter says: “I love dressing up and creating myself, as it were, according to the day and the mood. But it’s an illusion, because then the Daily Mail photographs you, and you see it and think, that wasn’t what I meant at all.”
She adds: “Even when I think I’m being normal, somehow it comes out wrong. It really does! I later see the photos and think, what was I thinking?”
Carter, who was married to Tim Burton, with whom she shares two children, Billy, 16, and Nell, 12, says of seeing them grow: “There suddenly came a point when they could look after each other, and it was like magic.”
She says of Burton, whom she met on 2001’s Planet of the Apes: “I was very conscious when we met, even though he stuck me in a chimpanzee outfit, that my face was his aesthetic: dark, pale, tubercular.”
She adds: “I never got a free ride with Tim because I was sleeping with him. I was always auditioning. And I gave him two kids and everything!”
Bonham Carter says of their 2014 split: “It’s taken us some time to adjust, but I think it’s really very good now. And the kids are fine, they get to have a dual life. At first it’s a horrible thing to get used to, not having your children around when you share custody. The cruelty of divorce is extraordinary. But then you get to a point where you’re like, Oh, I get this week off! Some parts are very much to be recommended.”
THE CROWN
Bonham Carter delights in playing Princess Margaret in Netflix's The Crown, and opines that while Margaret is often “marginalized,” “she’s always so totally herself.”
She spent months on researching the nuances of her character: “I’m not disputing that Margaret was rude, but often the reason people attack others is because they feel vulnerable,” she says, adding: “I’ve always been a swot. Honestly, you should see my Margaret file. Tim used to look at all my files and say, ‘You’re not an academic, you’re a flipping actor.’ But I have to suspend my own disbelief before I ask anyone else to suspend theirs. And it’s such an outrageous ask: I have to pretend to be Princess f***ing Margaret?”
JOHNNY DEPP, HARVEY WEINSTEIN
She also shared her thoughts on the convicted rapist, Harvey Weinstein. “I never see anything in black and white. I believe people are multicoloured, they’re almost never all good or all bad. Weinstein was a bully, full stop. But also, not full stop, really. He was a bully, possible sociopath and fantastically effective producer of films.”
Bohnam Carter also shared her thoughts on Johnny Depp, who is accused of abusing his ex-wife Amber Heard. “There’s something quite old-fashioned about Johnny, with these manners – none of it makes sense. But the man’s not stupid. He wouldn’t have gone to this length if he thought he was in the wrong.”