Queen of fun-tasy
Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Red Queen in the 3d reimaging of Alice in Wonderland, says mad people are more fun than sane ones
SHE is one of the most versatile actresses around and there seems no stopping Helena Bonham Carter since her debut as the tragic lead character in Lady Jane (1986). She has since starred in a variety of films including as a regular on the Harry Potter series of movies playing the evil Bellatrix Lestrange, as well as appearances on television and stage projects.
Carter, 43, is a regular face on director Tim Burton’s feature films such as The Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. Burton is her domestic partner and father to her two children.
She now appears in Burton’s latest feature Alice in Wonderland, an epic adventure shot in 3D, together with actor Johnny Depp (another regular in Burton’s films) who is a close friend of the couple and godfather to their son. Their daughter Nell also has a minor part in the film.
In an interview on the movie, Carter explained that this Alice in Wonderland is an original story that is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic. “I think this is what Tim has brought to it. We’ve got all the same characters as in the original story – but, genius as it was, it doesn’t actually have a story or plot to speak of.
“Alice (newcomer Mia Wasikowska) goes from one episodic encounter to another, and meets madder and madder people. What Linda Woolverton (the screenplay writer) has done is fashion a story with an emotional context for the film’s events to occur. In this, there’s a point to the whole story and a journey for Alice.”
Alice is no longer a little girl here but a 19-year-old trying to find out who she is. Throughout the journey of self-discovery, she meets a lot of strange characters.
Said Carter: “I love the main message here, in that it’s okay to be mad – some who are mad make the best people. I also think that the story resonates because, to a young child, everything’s incredibly confusing. I can see that with my son, Billy.
“As a parent, I’m constantly interpreting. You can see that he and Nell, who’s now a year old, are in a state of wonder. But then there is also the wondering, like, what does that mean?
“When I read the script, it made so much sense to me. It was really lyrical and had great heart. So you really do want to know what’s going to happen next.”
Carter explains the story has many characters but they are all mad in different ways. “The Hatter, the Red Queen, the March Hare, even the Rabbit’s got deep anxiety problems. Everybody is in a state of deep, emotional instability, really, except Alice. Alice is the normal one. Personally, I find madness or any emotional instability fascinating. Sane people are kind of boring to play.”
So the story is essentially about Alice who started out as an outsider in her own world, getting a different point of view in life and realises that being different is something to be celebrated and not be ashamed of.
When asked to describe the character of the Red Queen, Carter recalled the day Burton told her she was going to play the Queen. “I saw the first drawing he did. And there was this picture of a really angry person with a really big head.
“So, I play the Red Queen who has got emotional problems. It takes nothing, practically, for her to lose her temper. She doesn’t really rule through any kind of justice or fairness, but through terror.
“I chop off people’s heads – that’s my solution to everything. It probably comes from an underlying insecurity about having such a big head while everybody else has a normal head.”
To get a deeper insight on the character, Carter looked back at Carroll’s book and noted that he referred the Red Queen as somebody who was afflicted with an ungovernable passion, just full of this fury and rage. “No matter what the offence, her solution to everything is to chop off a head.”
Burton on the other hand suggested she watch Mommy Dearest, which is one of his favourite films. Carter was also inspired by Bette Davis in her role as Baby Jane Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
She describes playing the Queen as fun likening the character to a spoilt child who has no compassion for anyone else’s feelings except her own.
Alice encounters the Red Queen when she goes to Underland, a place she mistook for the Wonderland she visited as a child.
Carter said: “The White Queen should have been queen, although I’m the eldest. It’s just that our parents passed me by and gave the crown to my younger sister. Everyone is in a state of unrest.
Meanwhile, all of the supporters of the White Queen are rebelling, and I continue to rule with the only person I love, Stayne, the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover), my right-hand man.”
This is also the first time Carter has worn an Elizabethan style costume since playing Lady Jane 24 years ago. She has to endure three hours of make-up to get her looks right.
She also has to work with green screen technology which meant talking to no one in particular on the sets most of the time. But she insisted that wasn’t the biggest problem.
“The big hazard was I lost my voice pretty much every day by 10 o’clock, because she (the Red Queen) shouts a lot. ‘Off with his head! Off with her head!’ It’s quite exhausting losing your temper all the time.” – BVCT
