Helena Bonham Quotes & Sayings

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! — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Sometimes I get it right and I sometimes I get it wrong. But fashion is all about having fun. I think fashion has been hijacked by the fashion industry creating rules on what one should wear and I feel like breaking the mold and seeing that the world won't crumble. — Helena Bonham Carter

My least favorite actress of all time, Helena Bonham Carter. I find her lack of a neck very off-putting and especially her acting. — Edward Gorey

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

I think my mouth just opens and I spontaneously say things that occur to me. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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! — Helena Bonham Carter

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

You can actually have a pitch button, you know, to get people on pitch. — Helena Bonham Carter

There is no normality in life. — Helena Bonham Carter

I'm the kind of actor who has ventured into escaping from me. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

I've got Tourette's, practically. I'll tell anyone anything. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

I do think imperfection's underrated. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Maybe from now on puppets can do the parts — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

WI played a young Helena Bonham Carter in a BBC film called 'A Dark Adapted Eye,' and I thought she was a completely spellbinding person. Totally unmoved by other people's expectations, fashions or opinions. She's probably the coolest English actress there is. Incredibly idiosyncratic. — Honeysuckle Weeks

I had never had any experience of autism before and I would come home and look at my son, Billy, who is now two, and be absolutely paranoid, particularly because he loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and lots of autys love Thomas. But he is not very good at pointing, and autistic children absolutely love pointing. — Helena Bonham Carter

You just have to do what suits you, and it doesn't matter if you don't look like everybody else. Be you. That's our gift and we've got to celebrate that. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

To understand how you live, to live. Do not think about it and live with it. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

I drink a lot of Diet Coke and belch. I've been known to use the 'f' word. — Helena Bonham Carter

No matter how many modern parts I do, people still refer to me as Mrs. Costume Drama. Fight Club is a studio pic, and I've done very few of those. I've got a feeling it's going to change things for me. — Helena Bonham Carter

Oh - shit!" I said again. There were two circular red patches on my cheeks. "I think I have some kind of allergic reaction."
"Only caused by rage," was Lesley's diagnosis when I told her what I saw. "How about your eyes? Are they flashing dangerously?"
I stared at my reflection. "Yes, sort of. I look a bit like Helena Bonham Caster as Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter. Rather threatening."
"That sounds okay. Listen, you go out now and flash them at everyone for all you're worth, right? — Kerstin Gier

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

Am I a good example? Well, at least I'm not too thin. I eat. — Helena Bonham Carter

I love witches and magic and dress-up and make-believe. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

It feels like a rash. It suddenly seems like I've got a contagion of diseases, I mean awards. But it's nice, it's a nice feeling. It's so weird, because I'm only 46. A lifetime Achievement award ... it feels like 'I'm not over yet'. I hope they're not trying to say it's time to stop. I'm only just getting the gist of it. — Helena Bonham Carter

I'm definitely a bit of Peter Pan, reluctant to grow up ... part of me would prefer not to have any responsibility whatsoever. — Helena Bonham Carter

Everyone seems to think I'm very ladylike. That I'm very cultured and intelligent. I drink alot of Diet Coke and belch. I've been known to use the F-word. I've told a few dirty jokes. I arm-wrestle. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

I'm a late developer. I only moved out of home when I was 30. — Helena Bonham Carter

I've aged, but I don't think I've grown up. — Helena Bonham Carter

I'm always attracted to lower budget, not because it's lower budget, but because they tend to be better scripts. It's the scripts that tend to be the small arthouse film that tend to be more actor-led and character driven. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

All the ancient classic fairy tales have always been scary and dark. — Helena Bonham Carter

I personally never got the gist of Facebook and Twitter. — Helena Bonham Carter

I think smells, like sounds, can be so much immediately affecting. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

The animators are absolutely extraordinary. It's mind-boggling. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

Wearing corsets all the time was completely incapacitating, as far as digestion goes. — Helena Bonham Carter

It would be nice to really shed the corsets. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter and Jeff Bridges waved at me. And, of course, it would be absurd if they were waving at me, so I just stared at them. I stared at both of them. And they were like, 'Alright, fine.' — Jennifer Lawrence

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

There is no normality in life. Having two houses means that we can get out of each other's hair - which, let's face it, we've both got a lot of — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Be yourself. No one else can. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

A film actor is just a victim of directors and editors. — Helena Bonham Carter

Imperfection is underrated. Perfection is overrated. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know? — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Falling in love with him was completely unexpected. When you only see someone as a friend, you don't expect anything else. There was definitely a moment when something quite magical happened and we both agree that it transformed our relationship. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

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

Well, at least I'm not too thin. I eat. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

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

Who wants to be normal when you can be unique? — Helena Bonham Carter

I'm a very good sleeper. — Helena Bonham Carter

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. — Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham-Carter and I sat down to talk about [Cinderella movie] and she said, 'I really want to do it but only one thing I insist on and that's wings.' She had to have wings and [costume designer] Sandy Powell didn't want wings to begin with but had to be talked around, but that was fun. — Kenneth Branagh