He wanted me to play Victoria and I was kind of like, ‘Hmm,’ because it was sort of… Victoria was sort of [the] drama ingénue [and I] kind of did that, you know – to death. I felt like I was going to be type cast as a puppet as well. He said, ‘Well who do you want to play?’ I said, ‘Well, Corpse Bride.’ So then he went away and thought about it and then he came back and he said, ‘You know what? I’ve been thinking about it and, yeah, yeah, I could… But, you know, in animation we kind of need to, I mean would you ever think of any…’ He did all these abandoned sentences [and] went on and on and on. And finally I said, ‘You want me to audition, don’t you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’
So I went off and did my little audition and, luckily, two weeks later… Because nothing was said between us for weeks, I thought, ‘Is he going to mention it?’ And then finally he came up to me very solemnly into my house. We have the same house, it’s just a weird house with my bed and then his bed. And he came in – it was kind of like a sweet marriage proposal, you know? ‘We would like be very honored if you would consider playing the role of Corpse Bride.’”
Helena Bonham Carter Explains Her Approach to Playing Corpse Bride: “I think it’s just the same with any part. You try and find the human aspect in it. But it’s just a part of you.
...What I loved about playing the corpse is that obviously somebody else got to do the physical part. It appeals to the part of me that likes playing character parts and getting the chance to get away from my own physicality. But you still have to make it real and human.”
On Providing Feedback Before the Start of Production: “He would talk about it. I would say pretty much when we sort of first got together he started talking about this story that had been percolating around – and he’d actually designed. There was a real Corpse Bride, which we still have, which is the original one. But that must be about 10 or 11 years old now. She’s in really bad shape actually. …She’s on his desk. And then all his designs and things, and he was slowly drawing all the characters. I remember when he literally drew skeletons. You know, the skeleton band and so we’d just talk about it. But, you know, I don’t think I put anything particularly into it, and I certainly don’t assume that I’m going to be part of something until he asks me.”
The Nitty Gritty of Recording Her Voice for “Corpse Bride:” “I think just because of scheduling it’s quite hard to get anyone in the same room at the same time. We were all on our own, like in little booths, and they bring in an actor. But it wouldn’t necessarily be the actor that you’re [working with]. You know, I didn’t do one-liners opposite Johnny [Depp]. I just did it opposite a young man called Victor. A small 6-inch man called Victor. So you always have somebody to act opposite. You have to have something to react to. First off, they animate to you. You’re kind of providing the score, I think, to which they’re choreographing everything.”
Page 2: Helena Bonham Carter on "Tears to Shed" and Collaborating with Tim Burton
