Helena Bonham Carter: I’d love to do more theatre … I could job share

 
Celebration: Helena Bonham Carter at the BBC Films party (Picture: Ian West/PA)
Alistair Foster26 March 2015
The Weekender

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Helena Bonham Carter has looked into doing a West End job share so she could appear on stage and still spend enough time with her children.

While Helen McCrory would be her ideal theatrical other half, Bonham Carter joked that her friend and Harry Potter co-star might make her look bad.

The actress made the comments at a party for the 25th anniversary of BBC Films, also attended by McCrory and her husband Damian Lewis.

Bonham Carter has two children, Billy, 11, and Nell, seven, with her former partner, director Tim Burton. She told the Standard: “I’m not doing anything at the minute. I’m taking some time off to spend with my children and I feel more clear-headed than I have in a long time. I’ve had time to spend with my family and I’m lucky enough to be at the stage in my career where I can take breaks. But I’m not totally unemployed — I have some work on the horizon for the end of the year so we won’t go hungry!”

Cinderella premiere at Leicester Square

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Bonham Carter, 46, has not done stage work for many years and said she is put off by its “relentlessness”, adding: “I would love to do some West End theatre but every night I would miss bedtime with the children.

“If I could do three days a week that would be great — and to be honest I have had some discussions about doing that.” She added: “What would be ideal is if I could do some sort of job share. But then who do you job share with?

“My obvious choice would be Helen McCrory but then if you shared with her, she’s such a great actress she’d just make you look bad. People would be asking for a refund for the nights I was on.”

Bonham Carter, McCrory and Lewis were among 400 guests at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in Portland Place last night. Others included Alan Rickman, Douglas Booth, Tom Hollander and Rafe Spall.

Sir Kenneth Branagh addressed the crowd, thanking the corporation for the help it had given him throughout his career.

BBC Films announced it will be making 25 features this year, including Armando Iannucci’s film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.

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