Anyone hoping to woo Helena Bonham Carter must show they have the write stuff.
The quirky Harry Potter star, 56, asks her handwriting expert to assess potential boyfriends.
Helena, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the Potter films and is Princess Margaret in The Crown, said: “I check potential partners with my graphologist, my aunt and the nannies. People who are in your home – they know. The writing was literally on the wall for one of them.”
She began a five-year relationship with actor Kenneth Branagh in 1994. They met filming Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, when he was still married to Emma Thompson. In 2001, Helena began dating director Tim Burton, who she met making Planet of the Apes.
She starred in other Burton films, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland. They have children Billy, 20, and Nell, 16, and split up in 2014 – but live in connected houses in Belsize Park, North London.
Helena said of her eccentric image that it is important for teenage girls to “not give a f*** about these things”, adding: “You cannot afford to put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers, which is what so many teenagers are doing with Instagram.”
In her latest role, Helena plays legendary Crossroads actress Noele Gordon in the drama Nolly, which streams on ITVX from February 2.
