The Harry Potter Star Who Was Originally Cast As Bellatrix Lestrange
While it may seem like Bellatrix Lestrange was created with esteemed actor Helena Bonham Carter in mind, a different person was originally cast in the role of the wickedly entertaining Harry Potter movie villain.
In a 2010 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bonham Carter recalled how she got the call to play Bellatrix from the filmmakers behind 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" after Helen McCrory had to drop out of the role because she was pregnant. Three years and three films later, and just after the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," Bonham Carter recalled how much she loved the opportunity to step into the role of one of Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) most fearsome foes.
"I love magic, I love witches, I love the whole [Harry Potter] world," Bonham Carter told EW. "I was all too happy to play a witch."
Luckily for McCrory, she was offered another opportunity to join the Harry Potter franchise by playing the role of Narcissa Malfoy — the wife of Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) and mother of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) — in 2009's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." The role was about as close as one could get to playing Bellatrix after the role went to Bonham Carter, considering Narcissa is the character's younger sister. "It was lovely that they invited me back and wanted me to be a part of it somehow," McCrory told Parade in 2011 after the release of the last film in the Harry Potter movie saga.
McCrory starred as Narcissa in both parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Sadly, she died of cancer in April 2021 at age 52.
McCrory and Bonham Carter became close friends
While Helen McCrory needed to drop out of her role as Bellatrix Lestrange because of her pending motherhood — "I got pregnant with my first child, and insurance wouldn't cover pregnant witches!" she told Parade — she bore no ill will with her replacement. "I sort of knew Helena Bonham Carter before, but I've come away with a best friend in her," McCrory said.
If anything, McCrory lamented how she wished she would have been a part of the Harry Potter franchise much longer. "It's a shame that I joined it so late and Narcissa's part is so fleeting. But however big or small, it's been lovely to be a part of."
While it's hard to say how McCrory would have inhabited Bellatrix in the "Harry Potter" film saga, there's no question that Helena Bonham Carter was determined to mold the evil witch in a very unexpected and distinct way. Noting that there wasn't much in the script to define the character, Bonham Carter told EW how she brought the pure-blood magic user from the House of Black to life. "I think I probably made her a bit more insane and unhinged than she was meant to be," the actor told the publication. "I wanted to be conspicuous. So the [rotten] teeth was my idea, because she had been in prison so long. I wanted her to be quite savage. And I wanted that corset. It was sort of an Amazon thing. Bellatrix means a warrior. I wanted her to be sexy and revolting at the same time."
The rotted teeth had such an impact on Bonham Carter that they ended up being the one prop she took from the Harry Potter set.