While Helen McCrory needed to drop out of her role as Bellatrix Lestrange because of her pending motherhood — “I got pregnant with my first child, and insurance wouldn’t cover pregnant witches!” she told Parade — she bore no ill will with her replacement. “I sort of knew Helena Bonham Carter before, but I’ve come away with a best friend in her,” McCrory said.
If anything, McCrory lamented how she wished she would have been a part of the Harry Potter franchise much longer. “It’s a shame that I joined it so late and Narcissa’s part is so fleeting. But however big or small, it’s been lovely to be a part of.”
While it’s hard to say how McCrory would have inhabited Bellatrix in the “Harry Potter” film saga, there’s no question that Helena Bonham Carter was determined to mold the evil witch in a very unexpected and distinct way. Noting that there wasn’t much in the script to define the character, Bonham Carter told EW how she brought the pure-blood magic user from the House of Black to life. “I think I probably made her a bit more insane and unhinged than she was meant to be,” the actor told the publication. “I wanted to be conspicuous. So the [rotten] teeth was my idea, because she had been in prison so long. I wanted her to be quite savage. And I wanted that corset. It was sort of an Amazon thing. Bellatrix means a warrior. I wanted her to be sexy and revolting at the same time.”
The rotted teeth had such an impact on Bonham Carter that they ended up being the one prop she took from the Harry Potter set.
