Helena Bonham Carter Quotations

I liked pretending to be other people: I could reinvent myself, reinvent my own reality.

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 would pretend to be the French lieutenant's woman. I was always a romantic. I still am, actually.

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.

People have lots of misconceptions about me. My mum, who is half French and half Spanish, gets outraged when I'm called quintessentially English. I owe my looks to my mum-which was 90 percent of getting my first job. And, some people would argue, 90 percent of my entire career.

I enjoy those small chats you have when people come up and talk to you about your work. It only involves a few seconds of effort to be nice to those people, and I am very grateful for the kind words that people have taken the trouble to express to me in person.

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.

It was weird because I was pregnant, throughout that so it was weird being a pregnant witch. I was in a really bad mood but luckily, because I sleep with the director, he just sort of scheduled me so I only had to do it two nights.

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.

I drink booze, I smoke, and I'm hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I'm not physically repressed!

I was a mixture of being incredibly old for my age and incredibly backwards. I was born quite old, but then I stopped growing. I lived with my mum and dad till I was 30.

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.

All the ancient classic fairy tales have always been scary and dark.

I think my mouth just opens and I spontaneously say things that occur to me.

When you're up for an Oscar, you just get offered everything. It's fantastic, but a lot of it you're completely inappropriate for.

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.

I've got Tourette's, practically. I'll tell anyone anything.

People say, 'You're still breast-feeding, that's so generous.' Generous, no! It gives me boobs and it takes my thighs away! It's sort of like natural liposuction. I'd carry on breast-feeding for the rest of my life if I could.

I was weird right from the start. It's just that you can't ever expect people to get you. And I do think that really did mess with my head, being well-known young, when you really don't know who you are.

If you're a queen, you're powerless, so I'd probably demote myself and go shopping.

I love witches and magic and dress-up and make-believe.

Wearing corsets all the time was completely incapacitating, as far as digestion goes.

Fairytales have always got to have that scary quality, as long as you make them laugh.

I think smells, like sounds, can be so much immediately affecting.

My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family, it went into sudden widescreen.

I was sad that Corpse Bride was so short. I would've liked to have had her around for way longer. She doesn't actually have that many scenes.

I'm not dead and I don't have blue hair but some people say there are similarities. It is usually intolerable to watch myself onscreen but this time it's fine. I think it's beautiful and a real work of art.

I'm drawn to emotionally damaged characters because there is more to unlock.

Mothers are the heart of any household. I try to spend as much time with my children as I possibly can while also fulfilling my professional duties. It is tricky, but I think I manage it.

I personally never got the gist of Facebook and Twitter.

That's the thing with animated films - I often feel that puppets get the better parts compared to us normal actresses.

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. Then it gets tiring. And you do get bored of it.

No, I can never rely on Tim to make me pretty.

I'm often criticised for what I wear. That's my main label in the press now: disastrous dresser!

It's different when you're an actor and playing a part, but when it's just you, you feel immensely vulnerable have strangers prodding and prying.

It took me ages to grow into being a woman, into being happy with it.

I love changing what I look like because I always feel super strange whenever I do watch something that I'm in.

I should get a few ribs taken out, because I'll be in a corset for the rest of my life.

Multitasking? I can't even do two things at once. I can't even do one thing at once.

I don't think kids have a problem with death. It's us older ones who are nearer to it, that start being frightened.

You can't ever put your self-definition in the hands of somebody who meets you for 15 minutes.

You become very angry and depressed that you keep getting offered only these exceedingly demure and repressed roles. They're so not me. That's why films like Fight Club were so important to me because I think I confounded certain stereotypes and limited perceptions of what I could do as an actress.

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?

A film actor is just a victim of directors and editors.

For me, acting is about getting away from myself. So to look at myself is the last thing I want.

I look completely like my mum. She's very foreign, very Jewish.

I loved doing all those costume dramas. I didn't think, 'Ooh I've got to avoid being typecast' - you can't ever be dictated to by what other people think. I just do things because I fancy the parts and the directors.

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.

I don't think I dress eccentrically. I'm just not conservative, I guess - I dress according to what like. And I'm not a mannequin, as you can tell.

I'm the kind of actor who has ventured into escaping from me.

My father fell really chronically ill when I was 13 and that's when I phoned up an agent and started to act.

No matter how many modern parts I do, people still refer to me as Mrs. Costume Drama.

I don't think any actor wants their children to follow them into the profession.

It took me so many years to move out. I'm definitely a bit of a Peter Pan, reluctant to grow up. It all seemed really nice at home-why change it? Part of me would prefer not to have any responsibility whatsoever.

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.

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.

As everyone, you do end up becoming your mother, but also as you're acting, I find out you become every member of your family, bits come out without you really wanting them to come out.

I was reading William Shawcross's biography of the Queen Mother, dressed in my witch outfit! And you know what? It was a really good mix; it was a therapeutic mix.

I've never had white teeth. To be honest, I've never been told to do any of those horrible things - get your teeth whitened or your nose straightened.

Most of my relationships were people in the business. Having said that, me and Tim don't really talk that much about work. He comes into my bit of the house every so often to vent but we don't really have very high, cultured conversations.

Very early on, you figure out that you put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers. There's a different commodity. There's the Helena Bonham Carter that everyone thinks they know, who really has nothing to do with me. But you just have to let that go.

But it's often been the case, I've done so many countless small, independent films that really 3.2 people have seen, so you never know. You do it for the joy of the part and not necessarily expect anyone to see the final product.

Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room.

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.

Not only was it nearly impossible to hear because of these huge rubber ears we had to wear, but we also had these huge furry hands which were absolutely useless, especially if you had to scratch yourself.

I just went and got an agent because I thought I can create my own world - you can't right your own life, but you can escape to a world where you can have control.

I think I've still got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me, because if I'm not going to be restricted by corsets and covered in lace, then I still wind up wearing an ape-mask over my face. I do wonder how I get myself in these situations!

It would be nice to really shed the corsets.

The problems come when your personal life and relationships come under scrutiny in the press and often very uncomplimentary things are printed about you.

In any relationship, after the first year is over, you can't help but want your own space.

I remember I did think, 'Wouldn't it be nice if Mr. Right moved in next door?'

I'm always attracted to lower budget, not because it's lower budget, but because they tend to be better scripts.

The parenting bit is much harder than the acting bit. You just never know what to do.

With the number of people I ignore, I'm lucky I work at all in this town.

I'm a late developer. I only moved out of home when I was 30.

You can actually have a pitch button, you know, to get people on pitch.

I hate this image of me as a prim Edwardian. I want to shock everyone.

I just do things because I fancy the parts and the directors.

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 was like one of those nauseatingly nice children. I was very, very well behaved and boring.

My mom being a psychotherapist, I've been brought up with that whole psychoanalytical terrain.

Well, at least I'm not too thin. I eat.

When you write for very young children what they want is something familiar and safe and stereotyped.

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.

Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You're allowed to do it your way but of course he's always going to choose his way.

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.

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.

When it comes to acting, people talk about the suspension of disbelief that you ask of the audience. Before that starts, you have to, as an actor, suspend your own disbelief.

The thing about the Oscars is real life doesn't stop. You have to get back to planet Earth the following morning. The rubbish needs taking out. The kids will be crying. They'll need feeding. Kids do not care whether you've been to the Oscars!

I'm convinced that whatever state you're in during your pregnancy has a huge influence on the baby's personality - so I hope we haven't produced a little serial killer!

I’m more comfortable with myself than when I was younger. I hated myself then. Wait, I didn’t hate myself – that’s a strong word. But I was so diffident. I didn’t know how to act, for one. I had no confidence in that area or in myself at all, really. I had a big inner critic and still do. I just don’t listen to it so much.

And trust. It takes a long time to trust someone. You work with people, anybody you dont know, it takes about a films length to get to know each other. Then if you move on, you have to start right back at the beginning. But if you carry on together and try doing different things, you can all grow together.

On corsets: I said, You have got to be kidding. I am an ape and yet I am still expected to squeeze myself into one of those damn things.

I actually pointed my wand and it blew up! The power! The power was just like Angry Birds, but big [as] life.

Be yourself. No one else can.

I just want to give you this one piece of advice: if you're standing and you could be sitting, sit. If you're sitting and you could be lying down, lie down.

I always feel better after a good scream.

I'm a very good sleeper.

Sometimes I go, “What am I doing with my life?” But then I get letters from young women, or people come up to me, and they say, “You’ve made such a difference to my confidence.” And that is a good thing. I should read more fan mail though. I’m crap at responding.

To understand how you live, to live. Do not think about it and live with it.