Bonham Carter: 'I was a corset sex symbol'

Helena Bonham Carter has claimed that she has become a better actor with age.

The actress starred in a number of E.M. Forster adaptations before taking on the against-type part of Marla Singer in David Fincher's 1999 movie Fight Club.

Bonham Carter told The Guardian: "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. Well, not quite granny."

Regarding her career-changing role in Fight Club, she said: "It was Brad [Pitt]'s idea for me to be in it. In the six weeks when you're up for an Oscar, there's a little window where you're offered everything.

"Seventh week, when you haven't got it, you're f**ked. Forget it. So you have to get in there. I was offered so many nice parts, and I went for Fight Club."

Of her early career, she added: "I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I thought, f**k, I can't do this. I felt I was totally bluffing it. Now I'm much easier with it because I'm fundamentally happy."