Bonham Carter as Pandora in Dancing Queen.   (Photo: Courtesy of Helena Bonham Carter)

Very, very early on, my main inspiration was an actress friend of my parents called Lisa Harrow. My father fell in love with her — everybody had a crush on her, including my brothers. I just thought she was so glamorous and so beautiful, so I think she was an instant role model. And then I remember at school, one of my school friends, Carey Born, was on television. And I had a kind of envy really. But the main instinct was that I didn’t really want to be me. I wanted to reinvent myself, I suppose.

My first big part was Lady Jane and I thought, “Oh my God, I don’t know what I’m doing at all.” And then I did A Room With a View, fumbling around in the darkness, really muddled, genuinely confused, which was probably quite suitable for Lucy Honeychurch because it went on about her being muddled. And then that was a hit. But I was going, “Now I should really be doing something else that I’d be better at.” Then I played a stripper with a different accent, called Dancing Queen. I thought, “Oh, I think this is more like it.” I suddenly realized that I was a character actress rather than a matinee idol. That was the turning point — “Oh, I’m comfortable when I really don’t have to be me.” An accent for me is a real relief. It’s just fun, like putting on a new pair of shoes, and it makes you walk differently. It’s a thing that really does free you. With each job comes a different area. It’s like, “Oh, now I’m going to be a suffragette, oh, now I’m going to be a doctor, now I’m going to be a chemist.” It’s pretend — make-believe, really.

Carter’s most recent film is Suffragette.