Here are some photos of Helena Bonham Carter at last night’s Cinderella premiere in London. I just wanted to do a post for HBC solo, without poor Lily James (who seems incapable of answering simple questions without saying stupid crap). This is HBC’s first big premiere/red carpet event since splitting with Tim Burton in December of last year (or at least that’s when their split was announced). Helena looked amazing, right? This gown is Vivienne Westwood Couture. Such a fantastic, rich color and design. I will forever love HBC in Westwood.
Here’s how stupid I am: it wasn’t until TODAY, just now, that I put it together that Kenneth Branagh directed Cindrella and he hired his ex-lover Helena to play the fairy godmother. Kenneth Branagh famously left his then-wife, Emma Thompson, for Helena back in the 1990s. Branagh and HBC were together for several years, then it seems like she left him for Tim Burton. Something like that. I wonder if it was awkward when Branagh made that call? Maybe they buried the hatchet long ago.
When HBC was promoting the film yesterday in London (this has been her sole promotional work for the film, she didn’t attend any of the media events in the US), she was asked if she realized this redo would be a big hit. She said:
“I was really scared that it was going to be such a cliché and really boring . I said, ‘What there’s no take on it? No twist?’ Because Cinderella is a story that’s been told a hundred times and everyone knows what’s going to happen. But having seen it I’m amazed and it does work, which is testament to, one – the story is such a classic and was meant to be retold. And also he’s very clever Ken. It could have failed on so many levels and been really naff. But I think all the characters work because they’re not stereotypes.”
Yes, I could see that. So many of the “classic” fairy tale stories are being retold with a “twist” (Maleficent, Snow White and the Huntsman, etc), but from what I’ve read, this version of Cinderella is pretty much a by-the-books live-action version of the cartoon. And I could see how HBC would be like “Really, you want me for THIS?” But the pedigree is great – I think most people were probably relieved once Cate Blanchett and HBC signed on.
PS… I’m pretty sure HBC is wearing boots with her gown, right?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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