Interview
Helena Bonham Carter: ‘Standing up to Harvey wasn’t easy’
In her 35-year career, the actor has seen the best and worst
of Hollywood. She talks about divorce, depression and making her most personal
film
Simon Hattenstone
Mon 8 Oct 2018 06.00 BST Last modified on Mon 8 Oct 2018
09.48 BST
Helena Bonham Carter does not attempt to disguise her hurt.
She says she has just made the most important and personal film of her career,
and is convinced nobody will see it. 55 Steps tells the story of Eleanor Riese,
a psychiatric patient who successfully fought the US’s medical and political
establishment in the 1980s for the right to refuse antipsychotic drugs.
Bonham Carter, who executive-produced the film as well as
playing Riese, tried to get the movie made for 15 years, but it kept collapsing
– budget problems, casting problems, director problems. Initially, she was
going to play Colette Hughes, the campaigning lawyer (think Erin Brockovich)
who represents Riese, with Susan Sarandon in the central role. But so much time
passed that Bonham Carter ended up playing the older psychiatric patient, with
Hilary Swank cast as the lawyer. And now the film is going straight to video.
We meet at a restaurant close to where she lives in London.
You can spot her a mile off. If she weren’t so famous, you might think she was
down on her luck – massive dirty black coat and trainers disguising a gorgeous
floral dress (“I wore it as a tribute to Eleanor – she loves flowers”); massive
shades disguising a gorgeous girlish face. Bonham Carter is the establishment’s
oddball – uninhibited, direct, forceful, funny and, at times, vulnerable.
(Riese was always an outsider, but they have much in common.)
She takes a bottle of Coke out of her bag, pours it
discreetly into a glass and asks the waiter for ice.
“I want some food,” she says to me. “Have you eaten?” She
puts on her filthy reading glasses, which are hanging on a pearl lanyard. Are
the pearls real? “No, but they’ve got the weight. Feel them. Look. I’ve got to
get them for Margaret, because she likes pearls.” She is playing the famously
hot-blooded and hot-tempered princess in the next series of The Crown. She
pulls a finger across her mouth to zip it. “I’m not allowed to talk about The
Crown.” She turns her attention to the menu. “I’m going to do lots of meze.
Aubergine salad! Mmmm. Tabbouleh, chicken shashlik, hummus, tzatziki and some
lentils.” She bursts out laughing. “I’ll just buy the whole lot.”
Bonham Carter, 52, seems to have been with us for ever. She
comes from a well-to-do family (her great-grandfather was the Liberal prime
minister Herbert Asquith), made her name in the 1980s playing English roses in
tasteful Merchant Ivory adaptations of EM Forster classics (A Room With a View,
Maurice, Howards End) and evolved into something entirely grungier. She first
reinvented herself in the late 90s, cast as a louche siren in David Fincher’s
Fight Club. Then came a professional and romantic relationship with Tim Burton,
master of the ghoulish fairytale, who cast her in unlikely, often unearthly,
roles – a rebel chimp in Planet of the Apes, the Red Queen with the huge,
hydrocephalised head in Alice in Wonderland, the eponymous zombie in Corpse
Bride, and the adorable serial-killer Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Bonham Carter
and Burton had two children (Billy Ray, now 15, and Nell, 10) and became a
tabloid staple. They were fabulously eccentric – supremely childlike (the goths
who never grew up) and a Hollywood power couple. One day, Bonham Carter would
be photographed shopping for milk in her pyjamas, the next she would be
enjoying a New Year stroll with then prime minister David Cameron. (And, no,
she says, she is not a Tory – “Rule of life: you don’t have to be a Tory in
order to be friends with one. Even if they end up being PM.”) There were
endless stories about their wacky lives – notably the fact that they lived in
adjoining cottages, and slept separately (he snored in his sleep, she talked).
Even she referred to herself and Burton as “the bonkers couple”. Then, four
years ago, they announced they were splitting up.
“It’s a miracle this film got made,” she says of 55 Steps.
“It’s fallen apart so many times.” But the more knockbacks, the more determined
she was. She says she felt a responsibility to a woman who had been silenced
for so much of her life. “It was like I was carrying the baton for Eleanor. The
main thing she wanted was to be heard.”
The film is called 55 Steps because, among other things,
Riese had OCD – she was an obsessive counter of her footsteps, and had to climb
55 steps for her first day in the San Francisco court. Has Bonham Carter ever
had OCD? “No. I’ve had depression. My periods of depression usually relate to
the end of things. But I don’t have rituals. I’ve had times when my mind is not
helping me.” She stops. “Actually, when I was little, I did. I used to jump up
and down three times. This was just before I did the 11-plus. I thought if I
didn’t do it, I wouldn’t get in. It obviously worked.”
The curious thing is, she says, it only gradually dawned on
her just how personal a film this is. She shows me a picture on her iPhone of
her younger self, little more than a toddler. “I look so concerned. Already
worried. I was a worrier.”
After the death of her grandfather, her mother, Elena, had a
breakdown; Bonham Carter was five. “Grief can bring a hell of a lot of other
stuff up,” she says. “But she always felt her breakdown was a gift. Mum has
been a real example of wearing her depression and her mental frailty as a badge
of honour. She’s saying: ‘Look at what I survived.’” (Her mother trained as a
psychotherapist when she recovered, and still practises today at 84.)
When her mother had her breakdown, says Bonham Carter, “she
had a recurring dream that she was eating her father – carving him up and
eating him. She thought it was the most horrifying dream, and the therapist she
ended up seeing said: ‘What did he taste like?’ And she said: ‘No one’s ever
asked me that. Really sweet.’ After that, the dream went. Suddenly it was
solved.”
The family links to 55 Steps run deeper. When Riese was 10
years old, she contracted meningitis, and an operation went wrong, leaving her
with brain damage. When Bonham Carter was 13, her father, Raymond, a banker,
was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma – a noncancerous growth – in the brain
cortex. The surgeon prolonged the operation by six hours to try to save his
facial nerve; he subsequently had a post-operative stroke that left him paralysed
and cortically blind. She adored her father. “He was amazing. He was so clever
and flipping hilarious. When somebody is so disabled, other bits compensate. He
got even brainier, and more bold. My dad sat down for 25 years of his life. He
was never upright. The only time I saw him upright was when he came down the
stairs in his mortuary bag.”
It was only when she was shooting a scene towards the end of
55 Steps that Bonham Carter linked her father’s experience with Riese’s. “I
thought: ‘Of course I’m doing this film because of my flipping father; because
he also had a medical intervention on the brain that went wrong.’”
She talks about how optimistic she was when 55 Steps was
finished. It premiered at the 2017 Toronto film festival, the two real-life
lawyers (Hughes and Mort Cohen, played by Jeffrey Tambor) attended the
screening, and it got a rapturous ovation. “Mort came up to me and said: ‘You
have no idea how much this is going to help; this film will do more to raise
awareness of people like Eleanor than anything I can do.’ Then no one bought
it.”
Why does she think that was? “One or two reviews were OK
about me and another two really assassinated me. I was like, maybe they’re
right, maybe it is completely over the top. There was one really horrible one
and at the end of it somebody tweeted and said: ‘Excuse me, I knew Eleanor and
she pitched her perfectly.’ When Colette saw the film she said: ‘You’ve
resurrected her.’ So I felt a bit of vindication.”
Of course, it’s a big performance, Bonham Carter says –
Riese was a big personality. “What I didn’t like about it was that they assumed
I was being patronising. I am the last person to patronise this woman. I am her
biggest champion.” Her voice rises. “Don’t you dare level that accusation.
Maybe I’m a crap actor, but don’t don’t don’t say that I’m patronising her.”
She is right; it is a big performance. But it is a big, touching,
life-affirming performance that could just as easily have been Oscar-nominated
as panned.
Bonham Carter says she thinks there might be another reason
why the film wasn’t bought. “It might have been something to do with Jeffrey
[Tambor], who has had a whole sexual scandal drama to do with the Amazon TV
series Transparent. Unfortunately that came out just at the time, and people
might have thought: ‘Oh, we can’t touch it.’” This year, Tambor was fired from
Transparent after allegations of sexual harassment which he has denied. Bonham
Carter is staying loyal to Tambor. “He has such compassion, and I don’t believe
that same heart would be capable of any kind of abuse.”
A number of people Bonham Carter has worked with have been
caught up in abuse allegations. Johnny Depp, who starred with her in five films
Burton directed, was accused of being “verbally and physically abusive” by his
former wife Amber Heard after they separated. Depp denied the allegations and
Heard dropped her domestic abuse case against him. Did the allegations affect
her relationship with Depp? “No. Johnny is still a friend. He’s the godfather
to my children. I haven’t seen him for a long time. But he’s quite an elusive
character.” Silence.
What does she think of the #MeToo movement? “It is
definitely a good thing that #MeToo has happened. Any kind of abuse is not on.
But I think one has to be careful. You have to be absolutely rigorous about
what somebody has done to stand up and accuse them. You have to honour #MeToo.”
The #MeToo movement began on social media after the first
abuse allegations were made against film producer Harvey Weinstein, with whom
she has also worked. When I ask about Weinstein her response is typically
measured. “Nobody is wholly bad and nobody is wholly good. He was very clever.
There are a lot of reasons he was very powerful. He knew how to get you Oscar
nominations. Both my nominations are due to him. And he had great taste in
films.” What was the downside? “I found the way he treated certain people
chilling – without any kind of respect. There were many times I disagreed with
the way he behaved, and I don’t mean sexually.” He was bullying? “Yes. There
were times when Harvey asked me to do certain things, and I said no. I knew I
was running a thin line. Standing up to him wasn’t an easy thing to do because
I knew I could potentially lose work.”
Why could she stand up to Weinstein when so many others
couldn’t? “Because I already had a career. Other people were employing me. I
wasn’t reliant on him.” Despite this, she says, she did discover the cost of
disobeying him when working on the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film The Young and
Prodigious TS Spivet, about a genius boy who runs away from home. “Harvey
wanted me to tell Jeunet to change it. There is a scene in which he hitchhikes
and Harvey said as soon as that kid gets into a truck everyone will think the
truck driver is a child molester and all the kids in America will be freaked
out. I said: ‘I don’t think you’re right, and I’m not going to tell Jean-Pierre
Jeunet I know better than him.’” What did Weinstein say to her? “‘You’ve got to
tell that arrogant asshole he’s being a shit, he doesn’t know the American
market like I do.’ I found it revolting.”
Did she think Weinstein’s behaviour would come back to haunt
him? “No, absolutely not.” Because he was too powerful? “Yes.” Had she heard
allegations of sex abuse? “I was aware certain actresses had had sex with him,
but I thought it was consensual.” Did her experience put her off working with
him? “No. It’s a business.”
Bonham Carter is admirably honest about Weinstein. As she is
about the end of her relationship with Burton. Reports have suggested they
still live side by side in their adjoining cottages, but she says this is
untrue. Earlier, she mentioned that she tended to get depression when things
end. Did she have a bout after they split up? “I had a depression, definitely.
I think when you’re with somebody your identity is wrapped up with that person,
so it’s a loss of identity when you break up. I wouldn’t say divorce is the
easiest thing.” Were they married? “No, but we were emotionally married. We’re
family. So even when you know something is meant to end, that it’s had its
proper life, you still have to grieve for all the good bits. It’s a whole
massive re-formation.”
There have been rumours that they will get back together,
but she says she now thinks of the relationship as the past. “I think we’ll
have a friendship because we made the two greatest things in the world.” Do
they share custody of the children? “Yes.” She pauses. “Well, they share us.”
Is there anybody new in her life? She grins. “I’ve got two bunnies and a
tortoise. I’m not prepared to talk about my friends.” Pause. That sounds like a
yes? “Maybe.” She tugs at a huge silver hairpin that says “Maybe”. “Look
there’s a Maybe in my hair.”
She talks about how the world has been turned on its head in
recent years – Trump, #MeToo, Brexit (“God, it’s a disaster. Now we know what
we’re talking about there’s no doubt we should have another referendum”).
After all the grieving, she says, she now feels positive.
“I’ve got a whole new life. It’s fun. It’s less boring. It’s got a whole new
unpredictability. It’s really nice.”
She is also excited about her work. While so many
middle-aged female actors bemoan the lack of interesting work, Bonham Carter
feels it is getting more interesting. After all the bonnets and Burton-inspired
weirdness she is establishing herself as a character actor, with the rare
ability to do frumpy (Enid Blyton and Riese) and glam (Elizabeth Taylor in the
fine TV drama Burton and Taylor, and her forthcoming Princess Margaret in The
Crown).
It is time to leave. But she is still thinking about 55
Steps. She says she knows it might sound funny, but she genuinely believes
Eleanor Riese has helped her through her tough times. “I think it’s probably
the best thing I’ve done. The irony is that I think three people will see it.
But, luckily, even if you are in a nominal flop, as an actor you always have
the gift of playing someone who’ll leave her imprint on your soul and psyche.
I’m a wiser, more joyous person for having known her.”
55 Steps is available to buy and rent from 15 October
 |
Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in The Crown. Photograph:
Netflix/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock
Actor says she is terrified to be taking over from Vanessa
Kirby for third series of Netflix drama
Press Association
Thu 3 May 2018 18.24 BST Last modified on Thu 3 May 2018
22.00 BST
This article is over
5 months old
Helena Bonham Carter has said she is terrified to be taking
over from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in the third series of the drama
The Crown.
Bonham Carter, who was previously rumoured for Netflix’s
show, was officially announced for the role alongside Jason Watkins, who will
play Harold Wilson.
They join previously announced cast members Olivia Colman as
Queen Elizabeth II and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, who are taking over
from Claire Foy and Matt Smith.
Kirby was nominated for a Bafta for her portrayal of
Margaret.
Bonham Carter said: “I’m not sure which I’m more terrified
about – doing justice to the real Princess Margaret or following in the shoes
of Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret.
“The only thing I can guarantee is that I’ll be shorter
[than Vanessa].”
Watkins said: “I am delighted to become part of this
exceptional show. And so thrilled to be working once again with Peter Morgan.
Harold Wilson is a significant and fascinating character in our history. So
looking forward to bringing him to life, through a decade that transformed us
culturally and politically.
“And I am excited to be working so closely with Olivia; and
the whole team.”
Bonham Carter, 51, is known for her many film roles,
including her Bafta-winning peformance in The King’s Speech, as well as The Wings
of the Dove, Hamlet and the Harry Potter films.
Watkins, 51, won a Bafta for his role in mini-series The
Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, and has also starred in TV shows
Trollied, Being Human and Dirk Gently.
Created by Morgan, The Crown will refresh its cast as time
goes on to reflect the ageing of the characters.
The first series covered the period 1947 to 1955; the second
1956 to 1963.
The Crown will return for series three in 2019.
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