Helena Bonham Carter has movie greats Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and her daughter to thank for her tantrum-throwing Red Queen character in husband Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland – the odd trio helped her create the perfect fantasy villain.

The actress begged her director husband to be a part of the film and when he agreed he presented her with some research she had to work with.

And the Brit admits Burton’s ideas for the character really helped her become the Red Queen.

She tells WENN, “He said to think of Elizabeth I and I said that I got that. He said it was Bette Davis in the film of Elizabeth I, The Privates Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex. So I watched that and then Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest.

“The voice kind of came from my daughter; I thought that the Red Queen had arrested development and that I was pitching her about two years old… She’s like a toddler, she has a tantrum all the time. She’s a toddler tyrant – toddlers are tyrants!

“They’ve got no sympathy for any other living creatures… the toddler thing was a big thing. My two year old daughter – she is quieter now – was retrospective inspiration. Two is kind of the time when you don’t have any empathy for any other living creature. You slap things and it’s all about me. That’s OK in a toddler but not in a grown-up toddler.”

Source

By Celyn • June 03, 2010 • News • Comments: 0

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