Share on Facebook
Helena Bonham Carter, CBE, an English actress, famously known for her roles in "Lady Jane," "The Wings of the Dove," "The King's Speech," and the "Harry Potter" series, was born on May 26, 1966 in Islington, London. In January 2014, Cater was appointed to Britain's new national Holocaust Commission by the then British Prime Minister David Cameron. Here are 30 interesting facts about the actress:
- For her services to drama, Carter was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Queen's New Years Honours List.
- In the year 2009, Carter was ranked as one among the "Top 10 British Actresses of All-Time," by The Times.
- She launched "The Pantaloonies," her own fashion line in collaboration with swimwear designer Samantha Sage. The first collection launched was Bloomin' Bloomers, is a Victoriana style selection of camisoles, mop caps and bloomers.
- Filming the torture scene at the climax of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” was so intense and brutal for her and Emma Watson that she immediatley approached Watson and made sure they were still on good terms. However, most of the scene was cut to avoid an R rating in the U.S..
- Carter, while filming "The Theory of Flight," drew on her own life experiences to play her handicapped character of Jane Hatchard. Her father, Raymond Bonham Carter was wheelchair-bound for years, as he was severely paralyzed by botched brain surgery in the 1980s.
- The entire production of the movie "The King's Speech," was scheduled around Carter's schedule, as her dates were tightly packed with filming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
- In preparation for her role as Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," she underwent extensive vocal lessons and studied baking. she even used to rehearse her songs while practicing baking techniques to perfect the quick, syncopated rhythm of the music.
- During the filming of the 1999 movie "Fight Club," Carter insisted that her makeup artist use left hand to apply all her eye makeup, as she felt her character of Marla Singer was not a person who would be skilled at correctly applying makeup.
- She was denied admission to King's College, Cambridge University as the officials feared that Carter would quit mid-term for her acting career. It was due to this rejection, that she decided to concentrate fully on her acting career.
- After wrapping the filming of "Planet of the Apes," she was romantically involved with Tim Burton, who bought two next door houses to her Hampstead house in London. The duo reportedly shared the next door house until their separation in 2014.
- She gets only five minutes of screentime in the entire movie of "Terminator Salvation," and even filmed all her scenes in just 10 days. However, due to a a safari bus crash in South Africa in which she lost four members of her family, she had to return to the UK while filming. Thus the shooting was halted indefinitely.
- In a scene from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," in which Hermione (played by Emma Watson) disguises herself as Bellatrix (played by Carter), Watson acted out the scene for Carter, so she would have an idea on how to act as Hermione in that situation.
- Before filming the "Fight Club," she and Edward Norton considered visiting support groups for the terminally ill, but decided against it, as they felt it was inappropriate.
- Throughout the filming of the movie "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," she was pregnant with Tim Burton's second child. She insisted that the filming be done out of sequence as the size of her breasts change noticeably.
- In the movie "Conversations with Other Women," she, along with Aaron Eckhart, are said to have shot 82 pages of dialogue in only 12 days of principal photography.
- In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," a scene in which she fights with Gary Oldman, was cut from the final film. She underwent extensive training for more than three weeks in preparation for the fight.
- While filming the "Cinderella," she along with Lily James, had to wear huge gowns, and it used to take a tedious amount of time to be dressed. It is reported that it took initially about an hour for them to get into the coustume, which was brought down to 20 minutes at the end of filming.
- It took more than three days for her and Brad Pitt to record the orgasmic sounds for the unseen sex scenes in the movie "Fight Club." The actors even posed in 10 different positions from the Kama Sutra, while shooting the sex scene.
- While filming the movie "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," Kenneth Branagh is said to have fell in love with her. Branagh was then married to Emma Thompson, with whom Carter as a sister in her previous movie "Howards End." It is rumored that Carter is also one the main reasons for Branagh-Thompason divorce.
- In an interview in March 2010, she revealed that she has not watched her 2007 movie "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and some other movies too, as she does not like to watch her own performances. However, she added that she "will get round to watching it."
- During the filming of the Ministry of Magic stand-off scene from the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," Matthew Lewis suffered a perforated eardrum, as he moved his head accidentally while Carter had her wand in his ear. For a few days, Lewis was deaf, after the incident, though he only laughs about it in all the interviews.
- In an interview, Carter revealed that throughout the filming of the movie "Great Expectations," she wore only one shoe, as her character of Miss Havisham was described as wearing only one shoe thoughout the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens.
- She based her performance as Marla Singer in the "Fight Club," on the later stages of Judy Garland's life. Sometimes, while filming, director David Fincher would even call her as Judy, to help her get into the mindset.
- She intended to go to Cambridge University, but director Trevor Nunn insisted on her playing the lead of role Lady Jane. Nunn was impressed when he saw a photographer of her in "Tatler," in which she was the last minute replacement for her cousin Virginia. However, after “Lady Jane,” the university denied her admission, and she continued with her acting career.
- In the year 2008, she became a patron of the Action Duchenne charity, which was established to support parents and sufferers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
- In aneffort to close up the disparity in height between her, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the "Fight Club," she wore platform shoes throughtout the movie.
- In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," in the scene in which her character of Bellatrix craves "mudblood," into Hermione's (played by Emma Watson) arm, was not in the original script and was an idea that Carter and Watson came up with on the spur of the moment.
- Over the end credits of 2015 movie "Cinderella," Carter sings her version of the magic words "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," while he co-star Lily James sings her version of "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes."
- Once in an interview, she revealed that she had safely kept one of the wands she used as Bellatrix LeStrange in the "Harry Potter" series. She even added that she used to use on her son's friends sometimes as a joke, wheneber they were trouble in the house, just to frighten them back into line.
- She is the fifth actor and the first female actress to have appeared in two films that grossed over $1 billion - 2010's "Alice in Wonderland," and 2011's "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2."
- Helena Bonham Carter Net Worth: Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress who has a net worth of $30 million dollars .
