“Let’s not even wait until I’m old to not give a fuck what people think.”

“… I’ve never been interested in being cast for what I look like, but inevitably you have to go with what you’re given. But I’ve done a hell of a lot to camouflage it over the years. Remember Planet of the Apes?  I’ve been a chimpanzee, for god’s sake …”

Interview by Spencer Heyfron
Article by Chesley Turner
Photography: Sean Gleason

There’s a poem by Jenny Joseph that resonates with Helena Bonham Carter. It’s called, “The Warning,” and it contemplates what all of us self-aware, do-as-you-should, non-intrusive citizens of the world have to look forward to: a dotage where we do whatever the hell we want to do.

But for Helena Bonham Carter… well, why wait? “You just have to be comfortable and wear whatever you want. I never put too much thought into what other people are thinking, and that’s really the way to go. And having fun. And not taking things too seriously. The scrutiny of other people is to be taken lightly, I think. Does that make sense?”

Sure it does.

For a woman in a career that defines people by their looks, Bonham Carter admits there’s only so much control you have over being type-cast. “I’ve never been interested in being cast for what I look like, but inevitably you have to go with what you’re given. But I’ve done a hell of a lot to camouflage it over the years.” Remember Planet of the Apes?  “I’ve been a chimpanzee, for god’s sake.”
As a mother of two—Billie, 15, and Mel, 11—Bonham Carter admits to the welcome change that motherhood brought to her career. “In a way, it’s a great relief because it’s no longer all about you. It’s a great escape, having children, because the acting profession can be incredibly, unhealthily narcissistic, I guess.” Having children means less flexibility with travel and film schedules, which culls the parts you can accept. “Originally you were out working because that was your passion and now it’s like, I’ve got a different passion. But you still have to work because [otherwise] you’d feel bored. As much as I love my kids, I couldn’t have [stayed at home] full time and I wouldn’t have been that good at it, either. It’s better that they had a happy mother that was stimulated. And that I had a use beyond not being able to cook.”

In one of Bonham Carter’s next big roles, she picks up the Netflix-funded mantle that was broken in by another actress. Taking over the portrayal of Princess Margaret in The Crown from Vanessa Kirby has been a challenge and a treasure. There is the dual challenge of portraying a well-known and well-documented woman, and carrying on with a character already begun by another actress. To prepare, she read biographies and viewed footage, but also found close friends of the princess. Roddy Llewellyn, the British baronet who was with Princess Margaret for eight years, was particularly generous with insights to help bring the portrayal to life. “It was a real testament to her, because [her friends] so loved her and wanted to talk about her. There was a lot of residual love and happy memory.” She found the princess’s perfume, learned her tastes, and listened to the music she listened to. “But I don’t think it was particularly her. It was very political, and what she thought they would like to hear. It was her behaving. She actually was very clear: she loved show tunes.”
But as the award-winning series makes clear, Princess Margaret’s circumstances in life dictated her behavior, even when she struggled against it. “She only spoke when she needed to. She moved very slowly. Frankly, that’s part of the job. Being a royal at that point was just being seen, getting out of the car, going from point A to B wherever there was an opening. You were there to be seen so you walked very slowly. It was a symbol of status if you moved very slow. She had a real sense of performance, too, and it would change depending on different periods of her life.”

Bonham Carter was careful with bringing Princess Margaret back to the screen. “When I feel like I know someone and I’m representing them, it’s a responsibility. You fill yourself with a lots of homework and then you let it intuitively sink in.” Returning to filming after a shooting hiatus, Bonham Carter was pleased that the character came back so quickly. “I thought I’d have to resurrect her, but it doesn’t take long. We just do a read-through and she drops straight back in. The little looks and physical things and vocal things. It’s like wearing a cloak. It’s an atmosphere that descends over your skin. You’re never lonely when you’re acting. It’s like being with somebody.”

Based in London and completely European by blood, Bonham Carter is depressed by the entire prospect of Brexit. “I think it’s catastrophic. This whole thing is a total nightmare and a waste of time. It’s been misinterpreted and it’s a mess and it’s so scary. It’s a terrible idea. I’m firmly a remainer. I don’t understand any argument for leaving other than some arrogant identity crisis. I can understand why people are very angry if they’re not listened to, but…I would like to say, ‘Ok, you work it out. Do you really want the reality? Do you really want all these things to happen? And how is it going to improve life for future generations?’”

Communication is lacking in political affairs on both sides of the Atlantic. “Some people haven’t been listened to, but there is no leader who got it right. No one can be understood if everyone just shouts at everybody, in any kind of conflict. We have to listen and work it out but with the lack of tolerance for someone else.” Sounding not unlike a mother counseling two children at odds to interact like adults, she reaffirms, “respect is absolutely paramount, particularly with people who are different. You don’t just berate someone or ignore them or overlook them or go your own way like an isolationist. It just doesn’t work.”

The consequences of isolationism and arrogance on a nationwide scale is front-of-mind for Bonham Carter, who has been working recently on a documentary called, My Grandparents’ War. In the film, actors recount their grandparents’ experiences of WWII, recording the memories of a generation who were children during the terror that rocked continents. “It isn’t much longer until we’ll have no living memory of what it was like. There’s a certain eloquence that comes from that sort of innocence of experience, too.”

Bonham Carter’s great-grandfather, Herbert H. Asquith, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1908 to 1915. With that bloodline, she was often characterized as too posh at the beginning of her career. “I think people just thought it was easier for me because I’m posh and obviously, well, it didn’t help me act. But I had a privileged life. I mean, life is easier if you have some money. But we weren’t all that wealthy and I was never conscious of being posh, to be honest, until the papers started writing about it. There’s a perception, but you just let it go. You can’t do a thing about how people perceive you. You just let them carry on perceiving.” When it comes down to it, she was less concerned with what others thought. She was just trying to get past her self-perception. “I didn’t feel particularly talented. I think I probably took it personally because I thought, ‘Oh, they just think she’s bad because she’s posh.’ It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a label.”

With over two decades of acting experience, she’s played a Shakespearian ingenue, a lunatic witch, a classic film star, a slew of royals, and a madwomen who baked people into meat pies. “I’ve had East End, I’ve played Lovett, I did East End Jewish, I did Northern. I’ve done every single fucking accent there is, practically, in this country. It doesn’t matter. You’ve got to let go of whatever you’re perceived as.”

What’s much more important, what’s endemic, is who you actually are. And for Helena Bonham Carter, that’s the culmination of a remarkable cross-section of cultures and countries. “I’m very proud of where I came from. Not because they were posh but because they were amazing human beings. I’ve got a very English side, and then my mom’s side was French, Spanish, Jewish, Austrian…you know, total European. It’s a really very interesting mix.”

With the release of My Grandparents’ War in November, Bonham Carter isn’t only looking at those who have come before her in the family tree, but also those who will come after. “I look at my daughter and think, ‘You’re the receptacle of all these ancestors. All these powerful men, all stuffed into a young body.’ No wonder she’s a force.”

But perhaps most of all however because she has HBC as her Mum!

Interview: Moonah Ellison

Story: Zoe Stagg

Photography: Patrick Fraser

Ask 100 people to describe Billy Bob Thornton, and you will get 100 different answers. Is it the backwards Kangol and beatnik glasses of the early 2000s? The grizzled antihero of Bad News Bears and Bad Santa respectively? Or is it the present day, chilled-out rocker with a shock of silver hair? Whichever one you picture, you’re right. Thornton has smashed himself into a million pieces, because he had to. “I had no choice. I had to go forward with this no matter what happened, because it’s all I ever dreamed of, and once your dreams die, you die. I firmly believe that.” He’s mellow, his voice slow like motor oil seeping through gravel. “I never paid much attention to what people tell you are the obstacles, you know. It’s like if somebody says, ‘Well, yeah, you could try that, but that’s a tough world to get into’ or whatever and it’s like well, you have two choices —you can either try it or not try it.”

His upbringing in the woods of Arkansas was Spartan, but in his retelling, not unhappy. It taught him to make the best of what he had. “If all you have in you is a creative bone, which is about all I’ve got—all I ever did was either play music or baseball or, you know, act in movies or whatever—and everything else I did was physical labor jobs, you know? It’s not like I had it in me to be a stockbroker, that was never gonna happen.” What he did have in him, was everyone else. He’s played so many iconic roles, it’s like someone took a brick to a mirror; while they’re unrecognizable shards of the original, they still reflect him back if you look hard enough. The roles run the spectrum from art house to blockbuster, political strategist to institutionalized murderer, NASA executive to astronaut farmer. His own athletic ability gets a nod in turns as a baseball coach and football coach respectively, and then—there’s the Big Man himself.

Here’s a good trick question: Name the beloved Christmas movie with Billy Bob Thornton on the cast list? If the answer is Bad Santa, please come collect your lump of coal for not appreciating the BBT deep cuts. The real answer is: Love Actually. He played the U.S. president, and despite his broad portrayal, somehow it has aged into something downright statesmanlike. But of course, Bad Santa has also become a classic unto itself. “People don’t quite always get from Bad Santa, that the movie actually had a heart. At the end of the day, the guy sees himself in this poor kid, you know? You know he actually has a feeling for the kid, and towards the end of the movie, an actual Christmas-movie feeling. You know, even though it’s profane.” That stark juxtaposition works on screen. It’s less attractive in the dichotomous world we find ourselves in.

“There’s so many knee-jerk reactions these days, and there’s so much extremism.” Despite his seemingly edgy career, Thornton appreciates nuance. “It’s like nobody looks at what makes sense, because like politically, I might listen to somebody’s idea from the right and I go, ‘You know what, that’s not a bad idea.’ And then I listen to somebody’s idea from the left and I go, ‘Hey, you know what that’s a pretty good idea too.’” There’s room for polarization in art, less so when we’re trying to find a way to exist together.

“Change doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to just upset the apple cart and make everything one thing. But see, I think that’s more of the problem than anything, no one’s going towards the middle, everyone’s going to the East or the West or the right or the left.”

While today’s cultural battleground seems new and untested, it’s almost a historical reboot. Thornton was 13 when Woodstock rocked our cultural identity, but he was already well grown into the political scene. “I remember the days of the protests and the Vietnam War and the whole thing.”

Taking cue from that political landscape, and the artistic one it cultivated, Thornton picked up a mic. Yes, he’s an Academy Award winner and celebrated actor—but he’s also a member of the Americana rock ’n’ roll band, The Boxmasters. He sings lead and tours, calling music his first love. The music gives him a place to express himself, without a script. “You know, anytime you have an opportunity to write songs about something and it’s not to say that you can’t write boy-girl songs too, because I think that never goes away. You’re always gonna have relationship songs—but at the same time, I think you’re not worth your salt if you don’t at least write songs that are socio-political in nature, because it’s what’s going on in our world.” The Boxmasters have been jamming together for more than a decade. When he sings, the Billy Bob you thought you knew disappears. He’s still and ageless, his voice somehow channeling another time.
While it might be easy to imagine a rocker raised in protest culture to take one look at where we are today, and do a hard drop out, Thornton holds on. “You have to have hope because, you know, if you don’t have hope then all you gotta do is just spin around and, you know, stare at the television. I mean, you gotta at least do your part to make things a little better and I think you start in your own backyard with your own family, your own friends. You just sort of, try to rally the troops and make sure that you do what you can to make people happy around you and for the people you love. You know, let ‘em know that everyday.”

In the world where we literally let people know what we think of them in real time by applying tiny cartoon thumbs up or otherwise, social media is a modern complexity plaguing the human condition. “When I was coming up, you didn’t know like 50,000 people or 5 million people hated you, you know, cuz how are you gonna find that out?” Hearing it described like that, it sounds idyllic. Here in the present though, it can’t be ignored—only put in perspective. “You can’t blame it on the thing itself you have to blame it, at the end of the day, on the people and how they use it. Because I’d much rather spend my time using the social network to promote happiness, peace, progress, you know, things like that than to promote cynicism and taking shots at people.”

We should all be a little more Thornton, online.

Online is where you find a lot of him these days, as season three of the Amazon Studios hit Goliath drops in October. While streaming media was a departure from the traditional small-or-silver screens, Thornton has found in a way, what’s new is not unlike where he started—only better.

“I realized that places like Amazon are where you do independent film now. Not only that, on top of it, you have the opportunity to do an 8-hour independent film where you can really develop a story and develop characters.”

He claims he’s “essentially playing himself” in the show, and revels that the new season gives him the chance to hang out with his buddy. “I just don’t hang out with actors. I mostly hang out with my family to tell you the truth, and the guys in my band, so I’ve only got like a couple of actor friends that I ever even talk to or see and Dennis is one of them.” Dennis Quaid joins the cast of Goliath in its new season. “He lives like a mile from me and I’ve known the guy for, you know, 25, 30 years. It was great to be able to go to work with a guy you’ve known that long.”

Whether it’s longevity in friendships, or career, Thornton knows we have to grab the sands while we can. “One of the things we’re losing is our history. History is going back a shorter distance than ever.” And though it seems like he’s been everyone except himself for his entire career, the truth is, he’s been there all along. “Honestly, I’m an open book to any artist of any type who wants to talk to me about any knowledge that I may have that could be helpful, you know, I’m always there.”

To his friends, he’s “Bud.” To us, in whatever form he takes, he’s pure Billy Bob.

Photography: Jim Wright

“… Online campaigns create noise, and that noise puts pressure on the governments of these different countries because they don’t want bad publicity. It puts pressure on them to change the laws that keep women down. In that way, you can see social media really can change the world. That to me, is really inspiring…”

“We won’t know how this is affecting us for years to come.” If you picture Aubrey Plaza saying it as April Ludgate, the deadpan character she played for seven seasons on Parks and Recreation, it becomes a perfect reaction GIF in your mind. But in real life she’s passionate, about everything from women’s rights to equal representation—and she’s passionately torn—on social media. “I think it can be fun, but I don’t think we’re capable of understanding the implications of what this is doing to our brains, to our society, and how we interact with each other. It comes down to science, the chemicals in our brains that get addicted to these hits of dopamine that you get when you go on these apps and you get ‘likes’ and it’s like this instant gratification.” It’s a notion that’s pretty “hashtag relatable” in the filtered world of social media “Influencers” that’s the setting for her award-winning performance in Ingrid Goes West.

“…I think it can be fun, but I don’t think we’re capable of understanding the implications of what this is doing to our brains, to our society, and how we interact with each other. It comes down to science, the chemicals in our brains that get addicted to these hits of dopamine that you get when you go on these apps and you get ‘likes’ and it’s like this instant gratification…”

Plaza scooped up an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition for her portrayal of Ingrid, a girl driven to obsession by Instagram and the movie scored an Independent Spirit Award. Hours after a whirlwind weekend and fresh from her win, Plaza feels the love of this real-life ‘like.’ “Honestly I’m just so honored and grateful just to be part of that community, still. I grew up wanting to go to the Spirit Awards from a very young age. I was obsessed with independent film, always. To be such an active part of that community is still kind of mind-blowing.”

As skeptical as she might be about living in the social media world, she has fully harnessed it as a force for change. “If you have something to say or a cause and you want to rally on something, you can use your platform for it. I think a lot of people are doing that, and I think it’s awesome.” Here, her voice loses the thoughtful pauses and prickles with power. “I recently had a get together with a few of my friends, some actresses who all have social media—we were meeting with Yasmeen Hassan, the head of Equality Now. They’re a group of badass female lawyers whose mission is to change laws that oppress women in every country, law-by-law.” In the wake of the #MeToo movement, this rallying cry for equality might very well be digital, especially for global organizations like Equality Now. “Online campaigns create noise, and that noise puts pressure on the governments of these different countries because they don’t want bad publicity. It puts pressure on them to change the laws that keep women down. In that way, you can see social media really can change the world. That to me, is really inspiring.”

While she’s uploading for a cause, she’s chill if people want to use their feeds for cat memes and keeping up with cousins. “It’s a personal choice. I don’t judge anyone who doesn’t want to use their accounts for activism, people should be able to do what they want.”

Whether an online platform or a stage, Plaza is going to use it. Accepting her Impact Award was a chance to call for greater representation in Oscar winners —a direction she feels like the industry is heading. “It’s so important for children to see diverse characters and to see different cultures represented, and to not just see these clichés and stereotypes that I feel like my generation grew up with. I think it’s so awesome that kids have Coco and Black Panther, too! It’s a really exciting time.” With an Oscar for the former, and a billion dollars and climbing at the box office for the latter, it seems like the tide has shifted. Plaza is hopeful, but careful. “I don’t think that means that we’re done. We still have to keep fighting and keep that train moving.”

She puts her own momentum where her mouth is, advocating for continuing relief following Hurricane Maria. Plaza’s dad is Puerto Rican and together they put together a screening of Ingrid Goes West to raise money for the island still struggling to recover. “The destruction was really serious, and even now there are reports that things are not going okay, people don’t have power and it’s been months. We’re all sitting over here with the resources and Puerto Rico is a part of our country.” In a year where every day brings a headline more unbelievable than the one before, attention skews niche, and action follows passion. “I have cousins who still live there. It’s something I feel very passionately about.”

In the same vein, where there’s an overwhelming amount to pay attention to, Plaza realizes her role in helping people cope. “People need escape. The history of movies and why people love movies is always about escape. They’re that much more important when things aren’t going so well in the world,” she gives the sort of exhausted half chuckle that would make anybody alive in 2018 respond, ‘GIRL SAME.’ “I think that now is the time people probably do appreciate being transported into these other worlds. People are kind of yearning to expand their minds, or something. This can’t all be it, you know?”

In her TV series Legion, an expanded mind is practically a prerequisite. The gorgeously insane show on FX pairs the X-Men universe with the director of TV’s Fargo, and it’s almost more than the small screen can contain. “It’s so hard for me to talk about Lenny,” the character she plays to outlandish, whiplash results. “I think the trajectory of that character is like a weird riddle that has yet to be solved. It’s already complicated enough for me, and I’m in the show. I can’t imagine being an audience member and trying to put it together, it’s so trippy!” There might be a reason beyond escape that makes a show like this so poignant right now. “I think there’s something about these mutant characters with abilities that people are really drawn to, because people can relate to characters that are kind of oppressed, or characters that are not ‘normal.’ I think there’s something really relatable and important about these stories for people that feel like they’re on the edges of society.” Heading into its second season, Plaza can barely wait for it to hit. “I think people are going to lose their shit.”

She’s racking up projects from Ingrid and Legion, to The Little Hours and An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn—all in the same generation where a box-office hit like Thelma and Louise was once considered an oddity for its female leads. The trend looks good. “I think there’s more attention being given to female characters on the page. If a man wrote the script, a lot of times now, they’ll have a woman come and read the script and really focus in on the female characters and make sure they’re portrayed in the right way. I don’t get to read every single script, I have a little bubble of things I’m exposed to, but I do see a ton more female lead characters, which is really, really exciting. I don’t think that’s going to go away any time soon.”

Especially not if Plaza has anything to say about it—and she’s going to. “I’m taking a bit of a writing break, I’m really inspired to write and direct something myself. I’m ready for that.” She won’t give any hints, other than “Absolutely, yes!” it’s a project that will feature her…and beyond that, we’re out of luck. “I don’t want to jinx it!” she laughs. Her job might be living in public, but she takes time to clock out. “I’m honestly a more private person, and for me anytime I’m doing interviews or talk shows, they’re in some ways a performance. I don’t necessarily feel like I need to share every part of myself with the world. I need to keep some of that for myself, so I can exist as a real person and not feel like I have to be totally exposed at all times.”

She’s pushed herself even further from her “real life” stealing that spotlight, after a year of roles that shatter the April Ludgate Effect. That’s in part because Plaza treats each role like a real person. “It’s weird, but I don’t approach comedy and drama any differently. For me, it’s all about commitment.” She didn’t deadpan for the lols of it, she did it for keeps. “I committed to April at all times, and the comedy comes out of that commitment.” Even the edgiest of characters on the page have a beating heart at their core, and Plaza, quickly becoming Queen of the Quirk, is the master of finding it. “I really focus on the behavior. For Ingrid, I never wanted to treat that character like she was ‘crazy,’ I always thought about the behavior and why would someone behave like that. I start from a place of compassion for the character. Maybe she behaves like this, because she’s so insecure she just wants someone to love her. That’s something I can relate to, and I think a lot of people can relate to. And,” she laughs and repeats a piece of advice from Meryl Streep herself, “A wig never hurts.”

Neither, does the truth. “The funniest stuff always comes from the most truthful moments. And then of course, the timing. That’s something you’re either born with, or you’re not.”

She pauses, in full reaction GIF-style. “Sometimes I’ve got it, and sometimes I don’t.”

photography by Jim Wright

stylist Katie Bofshever @ the wall group

hair Maranda @ the wall group

makeup Mai Quynh @ the wall group

location Studios 60 los angeles, ca