A lot of actors know very well how to tweak your emotions and some of them are adept at stretching them to the breaking point. Helena Bonham Carter is one of those since she can play someone that you really, REALLY like and then turn around and be one of the nastiest women in film with one role. She’s the type of woman that can get you to like her without fail because she can be sweet, charming, and can use her beauty to great effect, but once she turns on the ugly and nasty she’s one of the meanest characters that’s ever graced the screen. That kind of range is absolutely impressive since it has to take a lot to get from one end to the other, particularly since when the director yells ‘cut’ most people will want to act like their regular selves. But with the characters she’s acted out everything seems to come so natural.
Here are some of her best films to date.
5. The King’s Speech
A ruler that can’t make himself heard loud and clear to his people is not quite as effective as the sign of weakness that is an uncertain voice does not inspire many people. Seeing that his deeds did little to nothing to inspire anyone Albert absolutely needed Lionel as the man was the reason that he lost his dreaded stammer in the first place. Lionel made Albert forget about the reasons why he stammered and was there to help him when he was needed. All the while Albert’s wife, Elizabeth, soon to be Queen Elizabeth, was at his side and standing behind him when he needed her most, as many a wife has done throughout history.
4. Alice in Wonderland
The Queen of Hearts was always a vicious and rather boorish individual, and the Disney cartoon simply expanded upon it, while this film went even further and made her into an absolute tyrant that would chop off someone’s head for the smallest of offenses. The fact that she didn’t recognize Alice is odd but it isn’t since she did have dealings with her in the past but at the same time Alice turned out to look rather different as she grew up, and even some of her staunchest allies didn’t recognize her at first. But once she knew who Alice was the Queen was not about to let the matter drop and she set the Jabberwocky on her in a duel to the death.
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
There is a belief that Bellatrix could have been much scarier than any in Voldemort’s group, including the dark lord himself. She was as much of a loose cannon as anyone could be since she had no compunctions about killing and would have likely gone all in and started a murderous rampage throughout Hogwarts had the dark lord not desired things to be otherwise. The only one that could keep her in check was Voldemort himself, since she was so beholden to him that she would kill her own family members and not even blink. The end she eventually met was entirely justified and more than one person pumped their fist in the air when Mrs. Weasley decided to finish her off.
2. Fight Club
A large part of the Narrator wanted to just let Marla die, to let her asphyxiate on whatever she’d taken and just be out of his life. But that wasn’t what Tyler wanted, and he was over at her place in a flash and keeping her up all night in order to keep her around. The dynamic between her and the Narrator and Tyler was ultimately kind of confusing until you finally realized the twist at the end and the reason why Tyler was never around when the two of them were alone. It was a trip to be sure, but it made so much sense why she was so mad at him after every encounter and why Tyler didn’t show up until later.
1. Terminator: Salvation
People will likely badmouth this movie until the end of time or until it’s finally forgotten but personally I think the story was actually well conceived if not well executed. The idea of Skynet sending one terminator after another back to the past, trying to work out the kinks, find new ways to infiltrate the humans, and coming up with a stealth terminator that couldn’t be so easily detected was great. After all, Marcus was still part human, but he was hooked up to the machines, and the good doctor that had him sign his body away obviously didn’t want Skynet to become self-aware, but it’s a very ironic moment when Skynet uses her image to mock Marcus and inform him that all he’d done was by design.
Like I said, you either hate or love her character, but she makes it happen with her charm and her insane amount of talent.
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