I
t seems ironic that Helena Bonham Carter, the
winner of Bazaar’s British Icon award, has never
felt particularly at home in the country of her birth.
‘My mother’s half-French and half-Spanish,’ she
says. ‘I was much more conscious of that side of
the family. And I thought English roses were supposed to be blonde
and blue-eyed.’
Certainly, in the flesh, Bonham Carter’s dramatic dark beauty
reflects her Mediterranean roots rather than the aristocratic her-
itage of her surname. Nevertheless, ever since she was propelled to
teenage stardom as Lucy Honeychurch in Merchant Ivory’s adapta-
t i o n o f E M Fo r s t e r ’s A Room with a View, she has cornered the market
in British heroines – and villainesses. They range from delightful
(Beatrix Potter, and Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech) to devas-
tating (Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter, Mrs Lovett in Sweeney
Todd or the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland) but all are rooted in
a quintessential eccentricity that Bonham Carter epitomises.
Her latest role as Princess Margaret might be perceived as
an amalgam of all of the above. Playing opposite a serene Olivia
C o l m a n a s t h e Q u e e n , B o n h a m C a r t e r i s c a p r i c i o u s y e t c a p t i v a t i n g ,
imperious yet vulnerable, portraying the Princess’ troubled middle
years as her marriage collapsed and she turned to Roddy Llewellyn
for consolation.
It’s a brilliant and touching performance that no doubt was
assisted by the fact that Bonham Carter met the Princess herself on
several occasions. ‘She was a lifelong friend of my uncle Mark,’ she
explains. ‘He was in the Grenadiers, I think, and he guarded
Margaret and Elizabeth at Windsor. And then they met, and I think
there was a romance. He was really dashing...’ The couple ended upSilk dress, Vivienne Westwood.
Veiled silk headpiece, £785, Rachel
Trevor Morgan. Crystal crown,
£495, Simone Rocha. Platinum and
diamond earrings; white gold, onyx
and diamond ring (right hand), both
Bulgari. Left hand, from top:
platinum and diamond ring,
Boodles. Ring, her ownas friends, and Bonham Carter recalls attending parties as a child at
her uncle’s home in the presence of the Princess. Years later, after the
fire at Windsor Castle, she was invited there to celebrate its restora-
tion. ‘Margaret was on her own with a drink in her hand and she
talked to me. She said, “Oh, Helena, you are getting better, aren’t
you, at ac ting,”’ Bonha m Ca r ter reca lls. ‘ Ty pica l Ma rg a ret! ’
This enthralling conversation is taking place at an outdoor café
table in the wealthy, pastel-painted enclave of Primrose Hill, near
Bonham Carter’s home. Naturally enough, the customers at the
next-door table are eavesdropping, and, within minutes, the actress
is chatting happily to them too, while their newborn baby sleeps
peacefully on her shoulder. She is similarly delightful to my teenage
daughters, keen fans of her terrifying turn as Bellatrix, when they
turn up to say a shy hello. Only when a passer-by butts in to request
a photograph does Bonham Carter become as glacial as any real-life
princess. We talk about unwanted intrusion; she is vocal in her irrita-
tion that paparazzi shots of her with her new partner, the Norwegian
writer Rye Dag Holmboe, have recently appeared in the papers. Her
fame, you sense, is a burden to her, and she undercuts it by refusing
to meet its expectations (what other actress would dare to wear odd
shoes to the Golden Globes?). Her beautiful face is untouched by
the surgeon’s scalpel, and today she has shrouded her dainty form
in a baggy tweed coat, and pinned a motley collection of twinkly
hair ornaments into her tangled bouffant.
On top of her own recollections of the Princess, Bonham Carter
conducted exhaustive research. ‘I could win Mastermind,’ she says.
‘But it gives me confidence, and I enjoy the investigating.’ As well as
reading numerous biographies, she interviewed Margaret’s friends,
including her hairdresser and three of her ladies-in-waiting. ‘They