Margaret’s other notes given through the medium: “That I better scrub up because my natural state is very untidy. Get the smoking right because it was a particular [detail].” In spite of the acid flung, Bonham Carter interpreted the notes as being generally supportive.
“It was nice to feel that she was on my side,” said Bonham Carter. “A lot of the time with acting, it’s almost a suspension of people’s disbelief.” But as an actor, the first step is “to bend your own disbelief and your self-doubt within yourself.” Bonham Carter said that she did comprehensive research and “detective work,” partly to sooth her own anxiety about taking on such a high-pressure role given Kirby’s critically acclaimed performance, The Crown’s massive audience, and the stakes of playing a real-life royal. She found the access she was granted “part of the excitement. It’s such a rare world; very few people are part of it.”
On her quest Bonham Carter spoke to an astrologer friend who mapped out Margaret’s sign; she invited Margaret’s ex-flame Roddy Llewellyn out to tea; and she chatted with Margaret’s friends, including former lady-in-waiting Anne Glenconner. An avid believer that smells can help conjure a character, Bonham Carter also tracked down the royal’s favorite perfume—Diorissimo—and wore it on set. Bonham Carter has tried to find scents for her other characters too, and was thankful that Margaret’s fragrance—which features lily of the valley—was pleasant. Not that a hideous scent would have stopped her.
“I’ve had ugly perfume before,” she said, describing a scent of nicotine and whiskey she concocted to play the alcoholic Dr. Hoffman in her 2012 Tim Burton collaboration, Dark Shadows. “It was absolutely revolting, and my hairdresser friend kept going, ‘Oh, you stink,’ even though I told her a thousand times I was wearing this horrible perfume.
“I love smells,” she continued. “I don’t know about you, but I find it changes my brain chemistry very, very quickly. On set you are surrounded by a lot of technical stuff and camera equipment. The perfume can give you a bit of emotional armor. It’s fun also because everybody notices it.”
Bonham Carter also worked closely with The Crown’s behavior expert, who noted the way, for example, that Margaret carried her head farther back than most people. “She spotted in Margaret a watchfulness. She found that Margaret was quite wary and quite vulnerable, actually. Almost like a bird of prey—being absolutely still, but the eyes would swivel and take in, sweeping the room before they see you. She was very, very sharp. Very, very deductive. So that was all interesting. All these hooks.… It’s a jigsaw and it’s detective work.”
Perhaps that vulnerability—and her diminutive stature—was why Margaret could be so cutting, establishing firm and oft-immediate boundaries.
Margaret, explained Bonham Carter, put people “back in place. Sometimes some people do need to be told. The thing is, with Margaret, she did set boundaries and then invited intimacy too at the same time. So it was a bit confusing to be around her for people, that duality.” Continued Bonham Carter, “I’m fascinated by bits and pieces of people—they’re always multicolored and faceted. So [it’s fun] to enhance as many colors as possible.”
Playing Margaret actually helped Bonham Carter develop better boundaries herself.
“I’m very friendly, sometimes, with strangers,” said the actor. But her behavior changed once she started channeling the princess. “I could hear myself being much more abrupt and commanding. I remember going into some event, and the photographers were being a bit rowdy and demanding, and I popped out saying, ‘Will you just shut up and do it one by one?’” Bonham Carter said that since the coronavirus lockdown, no one has asked her for a selfie. But should they start, Bonham Carter will put a quick stop to it—“How are you going to do a safe-distance selfie anyway?”—by invoking her best Margaret. “I’m going to say no. I think she’ll stay with me a bit. It’s like having a tenant.” On the subject of channeling someone for a role, Bonham Carter said, “It becomes a symbiotic relationship. She affected my behavior and helped me with a lot of things like boundaries.”