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Helena Bonham Carter tells Vogue why she loves different roles

Helena Bonham Carter speaks to Vogue about the importance of playing different characters.

To say that Helena Bonham Carter has a quirky sense of style would be an understatement, so it may come as a surprise to some that she is Vogue magazine’s July cover star. The actress posed in a number of gorgeous photos, before being interviewed on work and family life.

She is well-known for playing a wide variety of different roles, rather than having gone down the mainstream Hollywood route which would have been so easy for her. Playing different characters is something she loves.

“I learned how to be a southern belle, which I’ve always rather wanted to be,” she tells Vogue. “And how to be a w***e, which I’ve also rather always wanted to be. And I learnt how to fire a double-barrelled shotgun from a prosthetic leg. It’s frighteningly empowering firing a gun, you know? I’m afraid I learnt that too…”

She puts her heart and soul into each of her roles and does the homework to ensure that she nails it. “The research is what I get off on,” she says. “My mum is a psychologist and I’m very similar to her. I love the challenge of working a character out. Ultimately, I don’t agree to do a film because I think it’s going to be a success. I do it because I think I’m going to learn something from the character I’m playing. I’m not sure what yet, but I know I am going to learn something from Elizabeth [Taylor, in an upcoming BBC film]. I know that, somehow, I’m going to grow as a soul from playing her.”

As a mother to her two children and partner to director Tim Burton, she’s come to learn that acting isn’t the most important thing in her life. “It’s not my sole purpose so there’s less pressure on it. Which, of course, means I do it better. But I also find it’s less important to me now whether I’m c**p or good. I take myself so much less seriously than I used to. I used to be so self-critical, it was painful. Now I think, ‘OK, so I acted badly today. I’ll try and act better tomorrow.’ I mean, for God’s sake, it’s not like I’m a surgeon or anything. It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

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Posted by Amy Power.

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