Helena Bonham Carter is glad her days as a young British actress are behind her - because she no longer has to play the "corset sex symbol."
The 43 year old made her name playing upper-class characters in period dramas, kick-starting her career in the 1986 adaptation of E. M. Forster's A Room With A View, before starring in critically-acclaimed films Howards End and The Wings of The Dove.
But over the last decade, the actress has opted for darker roles - and insists she doesn't pine for the days she was typecast as an early 20th century heroine.
She tells Britain's Guardian newspaper, "Ageing has helped hugely. There's no question I'm a better actor, and you leave behind a certain typecasting.
"I was like the corset bimbo. Well, not quite bimbo, but you know what I mean. The corset sex symbol, I suppose. Now I'm not going to be the sex symbol, I'm going to be the granny."
Bonham Carter's last big screen appearance came last year in Enid and Terminator Salvation but she will return next month in Alice In Wonderland.
She will re-team with filmmaker Tim Burton and leading man Johnny Depp as she takes on the role of The Red Queen in the big screen adaptation of the popular story.
She is currently working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two movies, in which she reprises the role of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Alice in Wonderland is released 5th March.
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