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Brad Pitt was instrumental in Helena Bonham Carter being cast in Fight Club. And although the film was a success, at first it didn’t seem history would be too kind to the David Fincher picture.

Helena Bonham Carter’s Oscar helped her get a role in ‘Fight Club’

Helena Bonham Carter posing at The Royal Festival Hall.
Helena Bonham Carter | Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Fight Club became one of Carter’s most memorable films. It was a movie she credited both Pitt and her Oscar nomination for getting. She was nominated for her role in the 1997 feature The Wings of the Dove. And although she didn’t win, the nomination and her performance were enough to get Carter a lot of movie offers. Carter realized she had to snatch a film up quickly before the Oscar ceremony in case she lost.

“It was Brad’s idea for me to be in it,” Carter once told The Guardian. “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***ed. Forget it. So you have to get in there. I was offered so many nice parts, and I went for Fight Club.”

But initially, Carter wasn’t very thrilled with the opportunity to play Marla Singer.

“To be honest, I didn’t completely get the script,” she said. “I thought, oh God, this thing could really backfire and spawn all these fight clubs. It’s not a great philosophy, not a very mature one.”

For a time, it seemed that Carter was right to be worried about the film’s potential success. When it premiered, it was met with a disastrous reaction. The film’s director, Fincher, didn’t handle the response too well. But Carter’s mom was there to encourage the filmmaker.

“David [Fincher, the director] was so depressed by the reaction, which was really violent, but he was cheered by Mum saying, don’t you worry, it’s going to be a cult film,” Carter said.

It turned out Carter’s mom was right, as Fight Club went on to achieve much more success later on. Afterwards, it was noted that Carter usually turned to her mother’s instincts before accepting a feature.

Helena Bonham Carter credited ‘Fight Club’ for helping her change her image

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Before movies like Fight Club, Carter felt she was boxed into period films. The vast majority of her work used to take place in the distant past. Even the movie she was nominated for, The Wings of the Dove, was set in the 1900s. Speaking with Cinema, Carter asserted that she often had to fight to star in more contemporary projects.

“They’re not just out there pleading for me to take them, I have to fight to get them. I grew very frustrated with the perception that I’m this shy, retiring, inhibited aristocratic creature when I’m absolutely not like that at all. I think I’m much more outgoing and exuberant than my image,” she said.

Carter felt Fight Club was the first film that allowed her to break out of the corset stereotype. She might’ve had a little more in common with Marla Singer than she did with her previous roles.

“That’s why films like Fight Club were so important to me because I think I confounded certain stereotypes and limited perceptions of what I could do as an actress. I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I’m quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles,” she said. “I drink booze, I smoke, and I’m hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I’m not physically repressed!”

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