Tim Burton's documentary series, Tim Burton: Life in the Line, paints a vivid color on Helena Bonham Carter's life, offering a rare glimpse into her personal and professional relationship with the film director. The Crown alum reflects on their 13-year journey, from their initial meeting in 2001 to their split in 2014, detailing how they "immediately saw eye to eye" despite the "really, really bad" script for 2001's Planet of the Apes.
Helena, 59, recounts how Tim, 67, approached her with a soft-spoken yet assertive confidence, telling her she was the first person he had envisioned to play the lead chimp in his movie. "I have this feeling that you like to get away from what you look like," he said. "You're absolutely right," she replied.
Their professional partnership began with Planet of the Apes but truly flourished when they started working on 2003's Big Fish. Helena jokes that Tim "drew me into existence," especially when she was cast as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (2007) opposite Johnny Depp. The role required her to "audition back to front, upside down singing" and gain approval from the musical's original creator, Stephen Sondheim. The moment her casting was greenlit was emotional for both of them.
"Tim burst into tears," Helena recalls. "Pretty much the only time he has ever done that." They shared a house next door to each other, and when he came to her house to tell her the good news, he couldn't hold back his tears. "We put ourselves and our relationship and everything under a lot of pressure by me going up for that," she shares. "But it was worth every moment."
Throughout their partnership, Helena recalls that Tim was always sketching something. "He literally draws his way through life," she says. "Even if he's with you, he would be sketching. Even through momentous occasions like having a child or giving birth." Their lives were filled with sketches.
Helena is forever grateful for her time with Tim, not just for the great characters he gave her but also for the chance to create characters she hadn't been given before. After 13 years together, she understands certain aspects of his personality acutely: "He's not really at rest, Tim. He dances in the air. As long as he can channel that energy into something, onto a line on the page, that's his anchor." She continues, "But there is a real life in that line. That's where he's happiest. His symbols—the curl, stitch marks, spots, stripes—people relate to it. That's all he wants. And all he wants is to carry on drawing or creating or making a film or scribbling on a napkin. That's all he asks."
