from independent.ie (January 8, 2008)

When casting ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street’, Tim Burton made his partner Helena Bonham Carter audition. Nine times. So, has the healing begun?

ONCE everyone’s favourite English rose – thanks to her roles in the likes of A Room With A View (1985) and Howards End (1992) – the delightfully kooky and genuinely aristocratic Helena Bonham Carter finally managed to shake off her corset queen image in 1999 when she popped up as Brad Pitt’s bit of foul-mouthed rough in Fight Club.

From there on in, Carter started delivering the kind of sexually-charged performances – in movies such as Women Talking Dirty (1999), Novocaine (2001) and Conversations With Other Women (2005) – that would make your average Merchant-Ivory fan choke on their tea and scones.

Having met her current partner during the illfated 2001 remake of Planet Of The Apes, Carter and writer-director Tim Burton last month added a little sister to their family for their four-yearold son, Billy Ray, to play with.

That the couple, who got engaged in October 2001, are still together after the making of their latest movie (an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) is something of a relief for both parties, given that Carter has called the production “one of the toughest, most gruelling rites of passage we went through in our relationship”.

PAUL BYRNE: So, Helena, do you want to talk about it?

HELENA BONHAM CARTER: Yeah, it was tough, it was definitely tough. Auditioning, and not knowing if he wanted me, and he was tortured about whether I wasn’t right, but then Sondheim chose me, so that made it okay. But it was tough on both of us, making sure that I delivered, that he delivered.

You play Mrs Lovett, the pie shop owner who takes in Johnny Depp’s Sweeney Todd just as he goes on his roaring rampage of revenge against the judge who took away his wife and child and sent him to prison. It’s a role you had to do nine auditions for? You clealy didn’t want to get the Linda McCartney tag here…

Absolutely. It wasn’t an easy gig to get, but then again, I didn’t want to be cast for the wrong reasons. I knew Tim wouldn’t cast me for any obvious reasons – for any emotional reasons. He’d never do that. It was kind of a good thing to go through all those auditions, because, by the time I’d gotten the part, I knew that I really deserved it.

Tim has dreamt about adapting this musical for the big screen ever since he first saw it at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, back in 1980. Does that mean you’ve had years to prepare for this role?

No, no, no, I hadn’t, because he was going to do Ripley, and suddenly that collapsed, and he had time on his hands. I think it was me who told Tim he should try and make this, this dream project, but it all had to happen very quickly. Which meant we had very little time. It was all much shorter than usual, and I had three months of going to this poor teacher: “Can I sing in three months? Can you teach me?” The fact that it was this ridiculously hard part to sing didn’t really enter my head.

Sweeney Todd should turn out to be a very special movie for your latest addition, given that they probably know the songs just as well as you do…

Yeah, because I’m sure they’re going to recognise at least half of the songs here, and not know when or where they heard them.

It must make your job that little bit easier, given that you’re starring alongside your good friend, Johnny?

Yeah, he’s very conscientious and disciplined, and he’s probably a bit more obedient to Tim than I am. And he was very helpful, because I was pregnant halfway through, and therefore my focus wasn’t always the best. I had to give up caffeine, and that didn’t make it easy to jump to it. Johnny was very good at giving me signs offcamera when I was missing my cue.

Tim and Johnny are almost Fight Club close – is it like dealing with a second marriage for you?

They’re not like a married couple. They’re more like brothers, I’d say. They’ve got a lot of old jokes – poo jokes mainly, and American TV culture reference points. They’re pretty much on the same wavelength. And in this, Johnny’s hair was so much like Tim’s, they looked like twins at times.

Given the amount of razors on the set of this movie, was Tim ever tempted to go for a close shave, and the full back-and-sides?

Actually, sometimes he’ll come downstairs, and he’ll surprise you. It’s the comb, but he doesn’t really. Once I woke him up with a comb hanging over him, like a horror movie scene. He is clean though, I’ll give him that. He may look like he doesn’t care, but he does. He cleans his hair, conditions it and combs it, but then, within a day…

As a teenager, you were a big fan of musicals, and Sondheim’s in particular. At 13, you were so desperate to be Mrs Lovett you even had her hairdo…

Yeah, but the funny thing is, I didn’t quite realise I was doing it until one of my friends told me recently, “Well, we used to call you Mrs Lovett, don’t you remember?” I was a strange child…

Johnny looked at old movies like Mad Love and The Penalty to find Sweeney’s madness. How did you prepare to play a heartless wench like Mrs Lovett? Watch The Bride Of Frankenstein? The speeches of Margaret Thatcher?

Maybe I should have, but Tim wanted me to look at Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? – Bette Davis – and Bonnie & Clyde. Mainly those. And Mad Love, but I’d seen that already. We watch Mad Love at Christmas. Better than It’s A Wonderful Life.

Given that you’re sleeping with the director here, is it hard to keep your home life sane during the making of a movie this complex and intense?

We didn’t talk about the movie at home. That was banned. I listed rules to keep in place if we were going to work together. Rule number one was, don’t even go there at home; don’t talk about the job. Even if it’s a great idea, just keep it for the next day. And then it also became pretty obvious early on that I should watch my mouth on set too. Shut up, basically.

Are you able to judge one another’s work? Can you say to Tim, “Actually, honey, I think you went a bit too off the rails there”?

Eh, we don’t really watch our work, to be honest. I mean, I’m always gobsmacked when I see something that he’s made, because he’s very private, and doesn’t reveal much about what he’s doing. So, when you see the results, you’re going, “Oh, my God, you’ve been carrying that around in your head all this while”. So, it’s always a surprise, and I’m always amazed…