Children are afraid of Helena Bonham Carter

'Children are trepidatious around me. But then I did the Fairy Godmother (in last year’s 'Cinderella'), and that helped bring me in again,' says Bonham Carter. Photos: EPA

Helena Bonham Carter has never been afraid to let her freak flag fly, either on-screen or off. In Disney’s return trip to Lewis Carroll’s nonsensical Wonderland, Alice Through The Looking Glass, the two-time Oscar nominee reprises her role as the bombastic, ego-maniacal Red Queen, who tries to thwart Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as she travels back in time to try to save Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter.

In Alice Through The Looking Glass, we learn the Red Queen’s back story and get some understanding of how she came to be this cruel monster. Did you always have empathy for her from the start?