Posted: 10/25/12 at 7:28pm
>>Life's a real lucky dip for Helena Bonham Carter in Les Miserables
By Baz Bamigboye
Helena Bonham Carter has revealed she has a hidden, quite startling, talent.
'Not quite a talent . . . maybe a sideline,' she said, as she looked me over, casting furtive glances at my pockets.
'I can tell what's in there,' she said, pointing to my tuxedo breast pocket. Whatever was in the pocket was obscured by a red silk square. 'It's the bulge,' she said drily.
She then proceeded to correctly identify the make of mobile phone I had in the pocket, and where exactly I had placed my wallet and BlackBerry elsewhere on my person.
'How did you know?' I asked, flabbergasted. 'It's all down to Les Miserables,' she said. 'I'm playing Madame Thenardier. She's a bad sort and I learned how to pickpocket. I'm pretty good at it.'
Sacha Baron Cohen plays Helena's hubby Monsieur Thenardier in director Tom Hooper's screen version of the acclaimed stage musical written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer.
Helena and I were chatting at the BFI London Film Festival Awards, sponsored by American Express, that were being presented at Banqueting House, Whitehall, last Saturday.
Helena and her real-life partner Tim Burton were honoured with BFI Fellowships. Awards also went to Benh Zeitlin's glorious must-see movie Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which won the best first feature competition.
Helena said she took the role in Les Miz because she likes to sing in places other than the bath. When I visited the set several months ago, she and Sacha were belting out the Master Of The House number. Les Miserables is now being scored at Abbey Road studios in St John's Wood.
At the Skyfall after party this week, I bumped into Cameron Mackintosh, who's producing Les Miserables along with Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan of Working Title, and Debra Hayward. And he told me that because the cast sang live during filming, the music was being added to match the sung vocals.
'It's painstaking, but we'll be finished soon,' he promised.
The picture is expected to feature big time in the forthcoming awards season, and voters from Bafta, Oscar, Screen Actors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press's Golden Globes and all the film trade guilds need to see it within the next month or so.
Time is of the essence, because the Academy Award nominations are being announced on January 10. <<
Baz Bamigboye
Updated On: 10/25/12 at 07:28 PM
