Helena Bonham Carter

SWEENEY TODD'S CUTUP REVEALS ALL ABOUT HER BEST FRIEND, TIM BURTON,

HIS BEST FRIEND, JOHNNY DEPP, HER LIFE AS A WEIRD KID AND WHY WE SHOULD ALL

BE WATCHING HER BREASTS ON THE BIG SCREEN

Ql

PLAYBOY: Your companion. Tim Burton, directed you as Mrs. Lovett, a baker who makes pies out of human meat in Sweeney Todd. Did he make you audition for the part? CARTER: I auditioned and then there was five weeks of dead silence. It was hid­eous All he said was "well done" at the end. and that was it. For five weeks I heard nothing-and we were living together. You can imagine the strain. Of course I should audition like anybody else, but we hadn't anticipated the strain it would put on our relationship. Luckily. Stephen Sondheim. the composer, had final approval, which took the pressure off Tim. Tim said he couldn't have cast me otherwise.

Q2

PLAYBOY: Had you ever sung in front of Burton before your audition7 CARTER: No But literally from the day he said I could audition-with no preferential treatment-l went to a singing teacher. Then I was screeching every single day because I had to do these vocal exercises. Fortunately, we live in sort of separate houses. They're kind of joined now, but we have a good thick door that we kept closed while I did my exercises.

Q3

PLAYBOY: You have joined houses but live on separate sides. If we were to walk in. would we be able to tell which side is yours? CARTER: Absolutely. It wouldn't take you long at all. Mine is the tasteful side, and his is his side. Mine looks like Beatrix Pot­ter It couldn't be more country and tweed. Its very country cottage and very cozy and homey and welcoming. He has dead Oompa-Loompas around and multicolored fiberglass alien lamps. But then he has some nice red-button sofas from Sleepy Hollow So its a funny and good mix.

Q4

PLAYBOY: Which side has the better Christmas tree1

CARTER: We do just one. He decorates it with dead babies and slime balls and things It's his alternative Christmas. It looks lovely and glittery from afar, and then as you get closer you realize it's rather gory. But he loves Christmas. We do Halloween and Christmas really well. Easter, not so much.

Q5

PLAYBOY: Does your son. Billy, share the same sense of humor as you two?

CARTER: Billy and Tim are completely on par with their sense of humor because it's all poo-poo jokes. Billy is four, so its perfect. Tim is 49, Johnny Depp is 44. and all three have the same sense of humor. Billy may soon mature past them. Not may. will.

Q6

PLAYBOY: johnny Depp is Burtons best friend and your co-star in Sweeney Todd Depp compared his own singing to the "mat­ing call of a rutting stag." How bad was it? CARTER: That's not bad. If you've heard a rut­ting stag, it's a big self-compliment, [toughs] No. he's got a beautiful voice. He sounds like himself, too. He's very cool. Whatever (ohnny does, there's something cool about it. He's very hip. It's emotional and vulnerable, too. which makes it touching.

Q7

PLAYBOY: Depp is notorious for pulling pranks on set. Has he ever gotten you? CARTER: No. He was pretty good to me Decause he knew I'd be in real trouble if I ;aughed. And I tend to laugh anyway. He was ^ery well behaved, very focused, very profes­sional. We had the usual poo-poo jokes and

everything. I was also pregnant halfway through, so my brain went with the pregnancy. I couldn't remember a thing. I could remember my lines fine, but I was so uncoordinated physically. And anything Tim told me to do I'd kind of forget instantly, which I'm sure was deeply psychological. So Johnny was always helpful off camera, pointing in the direction I had to look or reminding me of anything I'd forgotten to do. Johnny knew he had to save me.

Q8

playbov: You met Burton on the Planet of the Apes set. What attracted you to him? carter: Hmm. Let me see if I can remember, [laughs] No, I do love him. To be honest, it took quite some time for our attraction to become apparent. We did a whole film together before we noticed each other, probably because I was in an ape costume and he's very private. We didn't have a proper con­versation during Planet of the Apes.

Q9

playboy: Were you a quirky kid? carter: My friend reminded me of something when I was auditioning for the part in Swee?iey Todd. She said, "Of course you're going to get the part," and I said, "Yeah, everyone thinks that because I'm sleeping with the director." She said, "No, because you wanted to be Mrs. Lovett when you were 11—you even made us call you Mrs. Lovett." It's true! I'd completely forgotten about it. I didn't forget that I so loved Sweeney Todd I learned it by heart, but I didn't remember having the nickname Mrs. Lovett. I do remember going around with Mrs. Lovett hairdos. So I guess that is kind of similar to Tim. Most 11-year-old girls don't want to be Mrs. Lovett. They would rather be on Char­lie's Angels or in Beauty and the Beast.

Q:0

puayboy: You won a poetry contest when you were 11 and used the money to place your photo in a casting catalog. What was the poem? CARTKR: It was weirdly about rumors, which is funny, given that I ended up becoming the subject of them. It was called "The Grapevine." It was a really crap poem. God knows how I won something. Someone stubbed her toe and by the end she was dead. I guess it was pretty grim. I probably had a pretty grim imagination. Maybe Tim and I are quite alike after all.

Q

pi.ayboy: You play drug addict Maria Singer in Fight Club. When you were making it, did you realize what an impact the film would have ? cartkr: I thought it was a provocative

script, but I wasn't entirely sure. My mother put the script out the door and said it was a pollutant, [laughs] Then when she saw it she said it was a genius film that was going to last for ages. She was right. The film was very much misunderstood because it's essentially a black comedy. There's so much satire in it. They thought it was just about senselessly beating peo­ple up, but it was deeply intelligent and observant and socially responsible. So we got a bad reception, but my mom was right when she said not to worry, that the film would last a long time.

CM 2

playbov: How many takes did you do of the orgasm scene in that film? carter: Millions. It came pretty easily. Most of the time I was off camera, so I would literally be on set going, "Uh, uh, uh, uh,)///, uh." It was like, just press the button. The scene is actually digitized, so Brad Pitt and I spent a whole day with no clothes on and strange white dots on our bodies. It was weird. We laughed through the whole day. The director would say, "Annnnd orgasm!" It's quite amazing to orgasm on command.

Q13

playboy: Some movie fans have put your orgasm up against Meg Ryan's in When Harry Met Sally. How do you rank them? carter: Oh, that's really flattering! Well. thank you. I have to write that down. I wish I had a certificate that said that for my wall.

Q14

playboy: You've played several drug addicts. Did you ever go through a drug phase?

carter: People seem to see me as that type, but I never did drugs. One direc­tor suggested I take them just to see what it was like. Just how clever was he? I'm not going to tell you who it was. I said no, thank you. I think I can use my imagination. The closest I ever came to drugs was postbaby, when they give you painkillers. Then I thought, Oh, I get it! It was so nice.

Q15

pi.ayboy: Your version of Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of thi' Phoenix is pretty busty in the corset. Is that all you? You are pregnant as we speak, and that can confuse the issue. carter: I don't really have those. I felt I had to make an impression somehow. I'm on the screen for so little time, I needed to establish Bellatrix. I thought. Okay, I've got a little time. I have to be bold with my choices here. I'll go with teeth and breasts, 1 thought, then I'll stand out. And I did! Now a year later I have to do the next one. If my breasts stay as they are—because they suddenly popped out

for this pregnancy—then I won't need to use any chicken fillets, [laughs] Any­one who watches Sweeney Todd and pays attention to my breast size will see there's no continuity: The first half of filming I wasn't pregnant and the second half 1 was, and because we didn't shoot it in order I start off with huge breasts, and then I w;dk upstairs and suddenly I've got tangerines again. It's melons to tangerines.

Q16

playboy: We saw footage of an old Japa­nese beer commercial. Is that really you? carter [Laughs] It's hilarious. I don't remember much. 1 think I end up in a haystack with Julian Sands. I'm wearing strange clothes. I was so young. 1 think that was in my monobrow phase when I still had just one eyebrow. For the first 10 years of this career I was really con­fused. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. It took a long time to grow up.

Q17

playboy: Did you have a lot of boy­friends during this awkward phase? carter: No. I didn't have many boy­friends. I was a very late developer. I was practically a nun. I lived with my parents until I was 30. I did see some men in my 20s. A few. [laughs] They found it tough that they had to see me at the parents' consistently.

Q18

playboy: Have you ever appeared in a movie Burton hated? r.\RTF.R: Not any he's actually seen. When he was really in love with me he watched about three Merchant Ivory films back-to-back. It was an overdose for him because he'd never watched one in his life.

Q

playboy: People have this conception of you and he as a dark couple. Do you have a goof)' side?

carter: We're not that dark. All Tim's films have a great big tender heart. I'm definitely not dark. I'm fluffy, if anything. What I love about Tim is that he retains a certain innocence and a childlike qual­ity. He sort of forgot to grow up. I think I've definitely forgotten to grow up, which is great. Great for Billy, probably. .At some point he'll probably want parents. [laughs] He'll have to look elsewhere.

Q20

playboy: If you and Burton ever split up. who keeps Johnny Depp? carter: Oh, Tim can have him! [laughs] They get the same poo jokes. Nothing will separate them.