Helena Bonham Carter Says Cinderella Was A No-Brainer

by Helen Earnshaw | 22 March 2015

Helena Bonham Carter says agreeing to play the fairy godmother in Cinderella was a no-brainer.

Helena Bonham Carter

Bonham Carter is set to return to the big screen next week with Cinderella, which sees Kenneth Branagh back in the director's chair for a live action adaptation of the animation classic.

The actress was on the red carpet in London earlier this week for the UK premiere for the film, and while she said she was never going to turn the role down, it was more of a challenge than she expected.

Speaking on the red carpet, she said: "At first I thought it was a no-brainer. Of course I was going to accept and it would be so easy. On closer inspection, it ended up being a bit of a challenge as it is not necessarily evident how to play it.

"I looked at all of the facts that we take for granted such as midnight and magic ending at midnight. And I thought 'why should it end at midnight?'Then I thought 'maybe there is a sell by date and she is not such an efficient fairy godmother.' Why should the shoes last and nothing else? She is erratic. That was my main idea; that she was highly stressed, erratic and it was accidental."

Cinderella is the first big screen outing for Bonham Carter since The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet last summer as she teams up with Lily James, Richard Madden, and Cate Blanchett.

However, are going to be seeing her in Suffragette later this year and she has completed work on Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. She will reprise the role of the Red Queen in the sequel to the 2010 film.