Helena Bonham Carter On Why She Had To Do One Life
Helena Bonham Carter On Why She Had To Do One Life Report by Mccallumj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 I got involved about 100 years ago, frankly.
00:04 I was involved, I think probably one of the first people.
00:07 Cinder Coxon wrote it originally.
00:08 She approached me about 10 years, no, about five years ago.
00:11 There's another director, James doesn't know that.
00:16 And James came around and when he came around,
00:18 he said like, this was about, I guess, two years ago.
00:21 And to be honest, I was slightly ambivalent
00:26 because I thought this part is highly cuttable.
00:29 She's a mum part.
00:30 It's not a huge amount there.
00:33 But there was so much that intuitively
00:37 and in my gut and in my, I had to do it
00:40 because a lot of it, apart from just admiring Winton
00:45 as a man and that story and one life,
00:50 my family, my grandparents did very similar things,
00:54 not quite on the, well, did extraordinary things
00:57 as far as giving visas to Jewish people fleeing the Nazis.
01:02 So it was part of my DNA.
01:04 Frankly, also my great granny was Austrian Jewish.
01:08 So I basically played her.
01:10 So I had to do it.
01:12 And I was Anthony Hopkins' mum and Donny Flynn's mum.
01:16 So.
01:16 - Tell us a little bit more about your character then.
01:20 - Well, I bet, Babby Winton,
01:22 she was a pretty formidable woman, highly educated.
01:28 Unusual for her time.
01:30 Very cultured.
01:31 She'd come over from, she was a refugee herself.
01:33 She came to Germany, Nuremberg,
01:35 probably in about early 1900s.
01:37 She'd done the First World War as a German.
01:39 They were called Wertheim until I think '37,
01:43 they changed their name to Winton
01:44 'cause they could feel another war coming on
01:46 and then they thought they can't do the same,
01:49 be in England with a German name.
01:51 And she was extraordinary.
01:56 I think in all honesty, she was somewhat frustrated.
01:58 She could have had an amazing job,
02:00 but it wasn't the time, she was a housewife.
02:02 So what she did with her son,
02:05 and that was a very exceptional
02:07 and I think quite unusual relationship,
02:08 a mother and son relationship that is so dynamic.
02:13 What they did, I think fulfilled her.
02:18 It was kind of what she, she was dying to be,
02:21 she had all this resource.
02:24 She was clever and efficient and organised
02:26 and she was the perfect woman for the job
02:28 and her son knew it.
02:29 - And just finally then,
02:31 what do you hope audiences will take from this film?
02:34 - I hope, I hope that they'll get the hope
02:40 and then they'll feel empowered
02:42 because that's the main message
02:45 that this one man can affect
02:46 and every one person can make a difference.
02:50 - I adore you, you're amazing.
02:53 Thank you so much.
02:54 - Thank you.
02:54 - I could listen to you talk all day, honestly.
02:57 Lovely to meet you.
02:57 Thank you very much.
02:58 See you later, bye-bye.