Bonham Carter had doubts over Miss Havisham role

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London, October 22: Helena Bonham Carter has admitted she was offended when she was offered to take on the role of the jilted Miss Havisham in the new film version of Great Expectations.

“My first reaction was ‘Am I that old?’” the BBC quoted the actress as saying at a gala screening of the film on Sunday night.

Bonham Carter said that despite her reservations about being too young to play the bitter spinster, director Mike Newell managed to persuade her that she was ideal for the part.

“He said if you go back to the the book and work out the mathematics she is only 56. I said ‘yeah but I’m 45′, and he said it spans from age 27 to 56 – and I thought what an original idea.

“Then I found that Gillian Anderson was doing it [in a BBC TV version] and I thought ‘not such an original idea!’”

Bonham Carter said Miss Havisham was “definitely up my street”.

“In a way I’d already played her because I’d done the [Tim Burton animation] Corpse Bride. I only played her as a puppet, but there were a lot of similarities,” she added. (ANI)