A Conversation with Helena Bonham Carter

How could anyone think Helena Bonham Carter would settle for bustles and corsets? In an early film (Lady Jane, 1985) she portrayed independence and determination, intelligence and integrity. She handled well the subtleties of the Merchant-Ivory period dramas by which she later became more widely known. She furrowed her brow in genuine consternation at the constraints by which those Edwardian characters were bound, but it is also today's society at which she forms a similar, if somewhat more impatient expression. At 29, Bonham Carter has earned a right to expect interesting roles. Her Genie Award-winning performance (Best Actress) in Margaret's Museum means her abilities are finally being recognized for the depth and intensity she has brought to previous roles. The corsets are gone, and we're going to see more of her.

I saw Helena Bonham-Carter for the first time several years ago as Lady Minerva Munday in Getting It Right (1989). When I saw her portrayal of Ophelia opposite Mel Gibson's Hamlet, I became convinced of something. I'm really not sure of what I became convinced, but I was determined to see all of her films. At the time I had no idea she had over a dozen feature credits, and a score of television, radio and stage roles.

Making Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with Robert De Niro, and Howard's End with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson brought Bonham Carter to the attention of wide North American audiences. Now, in Margaret's Museum, set in Glace Bay on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, Bonham Carter has played a role whose challenges suited her perfectly. The film has won six Genies, and Bonham Carter was in Vancouver to promote it. She met me in her hotel suite downtown for a chat.

Peak:I've seen a slightly eccentric approach in some of your roles, perhaps a way of dealing with an insane world that has the surface appearance of being sane. I'm wondering if it's perhaps part of your own character to challenge and question structure and tradition?

Helena Bonham Carter: I suppose it's not particularly conscious, really, so it must be part of myself. I don't think I'm a particularly conservative person when I think about it. I like eccentricity, and perhaps I am a bit so myself. I think it has to do with choices more than acting. There are choices always, but within limits. There are so many different ways you can play something.

Peak: You've acted against conventions, and in such roles that are so heavily wrapped in convention .

HBC: Yes. Well, I think that a lot of the heroines anyway in these costume-dramas are non-conventional, and by virtue of that they are heroines, the point being they wouldn't be heroines if they were completely conventional for their time.

Peak: How did you connect to Margaret MacNeil in Margaret's Museum? What do you think about that role?

HBC: I love the role. It gave me an opportunity to change my acting, because of the class background, accent, and all that. I loved her eccentricity, her nonconformity, her defiance, the rude language, the whole lot. I liked the story, too. I'm a sucker for love stories. and I loved the sense of humour; that was prevalent throughout. It was a great joy to do.

Peak: Have you spent much time in Canada?

HBC: Not at all. I don't believe I knew where Cape Breton was, shamefully. But I don't think of it as a particularly Canadian film. It is of course set in Canada. I do really just go where the scripts are, where the roles take me.

Peak: It's certainly a fair call to say that one film can't represent the whole country, nor just one experience.

HBC: No. Well, particularly not Cape Breton, which is so un- Canadian. It has its own particular culture. It has its own national identity, rooted in Canadian Gaelic.

Peak: Could you tell me more about your experience with the role?

HBC: Oh, it's quite easy to connect with something that's quite unlike oneself, in a way. There are lots of things. Once I'd found an accent, a lot of it came, so it was quite like trying on a new pair of clothes really. There's a lot that attracted and appealed to me. If there's something that you want to be, you should... um, well, use your imagination. When something's this well written, when you play it, it plays you. From the writing you just get a whole sense of Margaret. It just comes along.

Peak: It doesn't seem like you worked from a sheaf of paper and a director new to the screenplay trying to work it up. It seems there was a fairly integrated group of you working on the production.

HBC: Pretty much. I had pretty extreme ideas of what she was going to look like, the accent, etc. With [writer/director] Mort [Ransen] there was the usual discussion. We seemed to have pretty much the same ideas on the whole. It was a very low budget, it was very rushed. We didn't have very much time, very long hours. But everyone seemed to have a great sense of humour, which is a great sustainer.

Peak: Do you pay any attention to computers?

HBC: No, but somebody alerted me yesterday how much I'm on the Internet.

Peak: I had a look. It struck me as a strange and curious thing. I typed your name in and a lot of sites came up. With pictures, a lot of computer-screen pictures. It's a rarefied medium.

HBC: It is very strange, quite spooky that there's all that info that's accessible to anyone. Some is not necessarily true. But that's why I'm here, so that people can ask you, who enjoy watching me, so I'm grateful for that.

Peak: We'll tell people about Margaret's Museum.

HBC; Oh, yes please. Thank you.

Peak : Thank you for your time.

HBC: Not at all. Thank you.

That last part was especially fun for me. Shaking hands with Helena Bonham Carter as I left, I asked what she does for fun. When she has a chance, she reads, histories and biographies, and is off now for a holiday. If her rising talent is any indication, she'll need that vacation to rest up for a long career ahead.

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