‘I’m miles happier than when I was younger’: Seven things we learnt from Helena Bonham Carter on Woman’s Hour
Award-winning actor Helena Bonham Carter has played everyone. From royalty – Princess Margaret in The Crown and the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland – to Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the iconic villains in the Harry Potter films. More recently she’s been on our screens as Enola Holmes’ formidable mother Eudoria in the Netflix films with Milly Bobby Brown.
Now she’s taking on a very different role, the Queen of the Midlands in ITV’s new drama Nolly. Noele Gordon, or Nolly as she was known to her friends, starred in the hugely popular TV soap Crossroads in the 60s and 70s. In the new three-part drama written by Russell T Davies, Nolly is shown reeling from the news that her contract has not been renewed after 18 years.
Helena joined Nuala McGovern on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss the pressures she’s faced as an actor, her experience performing some of her iconic roles, and how getting older has made her happier.
Here are some of the things we learned from their conversation…
1. Russell T Davies sent Helena a letter asking her to be a part of the project
“I got the script, and I thought: Thank my lucky stars it has landed on my lap,” says Helena. “He's just such a brilliant writer. At the end of the great script that I read, I immediately went on to YouTube going: I’ve got to look up, who is this Noele Gordon?
“[Russell] wrote me a lovely letter, which was saying: ‘We need to give her a proper send off. This woman deserves a proper goodbye, she wasn't given it.’”
2. Helena was drawn to Nolly because of her unapologetic character
“[Noele Gordon] was probably the most famous person in Britain,” says Helena. “She was the queen of the Midlands. Nolly is such a great, complicated, but fantastic person.
“You couldn't have had more of a public humiliation. For 19 years, she was on the soap opera, and she was sacked publicly, no warning, no reason. She was immediately replaced by Gabrielle Drake, who was 30 years younger. It couldn't have been more blatant. I think it wasn't just because she was old, she was very clever. If we have to age, which is a crime these days, we must be thick. Don't threaten. Or be very apologetic.
“Most people will want to crawl into a dark cave if you've been sacked. And publicly every single day people came up and asked: So, why did they get rid of you? She went on Russell Harty and basically said it exactly how it was. That's what I loved about [Nolly]. There's not an ounce of apology.”
Helena Bonham Carter: ‘It’s a dirty word, isn’t it, ageing’
The award-winning actor tells Nuala McGovern why she gets happier the older she becomes.
3. She doesn’t think women should have to apologise for getting older
“The fact that I got [the role of] Nolly, I was thinking: ‘God, I'm so lucky at my age to get this part, which is, frankly, possibly one of the best parts I've ever been offered... and at my age.’
“Then part of me thought: How sad that I even have to apologise for my age and that I naturally expect it’s going to get worse. But it's getting better. I think it's getting better for everyone. Because of the amount of streaming services - it's the age of telly, isn't it? All these things are being made.”
4. Helena still faces pressure to look a certain way
“You cannot not bump up against it,” says Helena. “Every single magazine, Instagram, anything, it's all about: Thou shalt not age. You know, it's a dirty word, isn't it, ageing? I think we're all obsessed by it. It's sort of pathological, you know, it's almost a crime, and there’s shame attached.
“I'll do what makes me happy and hopefully not make me look ridiculous. What's good is that I'm employed to be other people. So, whatever is appropriate for that other person, I keep that in mind.
“It'd be great if we could just change things, our societal rules and say: ‘Come on, we are in our prime in our 60s. We've got everything. We've come into our power.’”
5. Helena says getting older has only made her happier
“At the end of the day, you can get really obsessed,” says Helena. "We can't actually control what we look like, but we think we can. And in fact, there's so much else that we should worry about.
“I'm definitely the cliché of saying: I'm miles happier than I was younger, I don't want to ever go back there. My envelope might be less strictly, aesthetically pleasing. But on the inside I'm much more interesting and dynamic, and I think attractive."
6. She missed being treated like royalty after she left The Crown
Helena played Princess Margaret in series three and four of The Crown, before Lesley Manville took over the role for the series five.
“We had done two seasons spread over two years. So, by that time I felt that it was time to hand it on. It was a bit of loss, a bit like feeling demoted.
“Often [with] the people you're working with, you're treated a bit like whoever you're playing. They go with the fiction. I did feel like I was being treated like Princess Margaret. So, [when I left] I felt a bit like: ‘Oh, where have they all gone, you know?”
7. She still channels her iconic characters
“It’s funny. They’re like having lodgers,” says Helena. “They come and they go. Sometimes you go: ‘That reminds me of something’ and you think: ‘Oh, it’s somebody else that I played. Princess Margaret did linger but I think she’s gone now.”
Listen to Helena Bonham Carter’s interview with Nuala McGovern in full on BBC Sounds, where you can also find every episode of the Woman’s Hour podcast that you may have missed. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter @bbcwomanshour.
You can watch Nolly on demand on ITVx from 2 February.
