Crown star Helena: I took Margaret’s advice on how to smoke – from beyond the grave
HELENA Bonham Carter has told how she used a medium to ask Princess Margaret about her smoking before playing her in the new series of The Crown.
The actress, 53, said the Queen’s sister, who died in 2002 aged 71, advised her through the psychic: ‘Get the smoking right – I smoked in a very particular way.
‘Remember that – this is a big note – the cigarette holder was as much a weapon for expression as it was for smoking.’
Miss Bonham Carter stars as Margaret in series three of the Netflix drama, which starts next month. She has previously told of using a medium to contact her, but explained further details at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on Saturday.
She said: ‘My main thing when you play someone who is real... you kind of want their blessing. She (Princess Margaret) said apparently she was glad it was me.
‘I asked her, “Are you OK with me playing you?” and she said “You’re better than the other actress”. That made me think maybe she is here because that is a classic Margaret thing to say. She was really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time.
‘Then she said, “But you’re going to have to brush up and be more groomed and neater”.’ The actress previously told the Mail: ‘I contacted a medium. I know it’s deeply worrying because it makes me sound even more crackers than I usually am – and I am crackers. But I thought “Well, why not?”’
Miss Bonham Carter also revealed she believes her uncle Mark Bonham Carter – a war hero and Liberal MP – had a fling with a teenage Princess Margaret in the 1940s.