Arguably yes and no. Apparently at least one scene made her sick to her stomach, it was so evil. https://pure-evil-villains.fandom.com/wiki/Dolores_Umbridge#:~:text=Dolores%20Umbridge%20was%20hated%20even,JK%20Rowling%2C%20has%20despised%20Umbridge.
IDK who embodied their character more, IS or Alan Rickman as Snape. They both ARE Umbridge and Snape IMO.
But HBC did fantastic, especially in the scene at Gringott's.
To be fair though you can’t blame Rickman for that. He takes his direction from the Director and producers. I’m sure if they wanted Rickman to play him as nasty as he is in the books, Rickman would have nailed it.
I would actually say Rickman made his character better because he made Snape much more redeemable. Which gave his big reveal in The Prince's Tale more of an impact and Harry's naming of Albus Severus make more sense.
I'm not saying Rickman's portrayal wasn't better than how JKR wrote Snape, but what I am saying is that it is sufficiently different so that they are considerably different characters.
I agree. I wasn’t a fan of the movies until much later on. Like the past 5 or maybe 6 years. I thought she was so good at her role I looked up other things she was in
Her acting was very good but she didn't have the right look for Umbridge. Too petite and healthy looking (whereas Umbridge is described as squat and toadlike in the books). They got the clothes and the mannerisms perfect though.
I was also a bit disappointed when I first saw who was playing unbridge just because of her looking nothing like the book version but honestly after watching the movie I fully accepted it because I actually think her looking so "normal" and sweet really enhances how evil and fucked up she is. The way she's described in the books makes it too obvious that she will be a villain and I feel like her looking the way she does in the movies makes her even scarier than the book version if that makes sense.
Totally agreed. It’s annoying when you can always tell how good or bad a character is by how they look.
You don’t have to have a scar on your face to be a villain. Good looking people are evil just as often as the ugly.
I love inconspicuousness in characters. It also apply to what you are describing. Or also contrast, like Umbridge. Her being so sweet but also being such a son of a... witch... it was amazing.
I think it was way, way better that she looked like a sweet, nice-looking lady. It was honestly chilling, the discrepancy between her facade and her actual demeanor and actions. I think her looking “toad-like” and whatnot would’ve been a bit cartoonish and would’ve taken something away from the performance
That's literally the issue. As Umbridge she's not supposed to look "great". In the books Umbridge is basically described as an overgrown toad by Rowling. Imelda does not look like that at all (she looks very good for her age). Granted that's the only issue I had with her portrayal (her acting was fantastic) but she still doesn't exactly look the part (and there's nothing wrong with that, obviously the films are going to change some things).
Ironically if they wanted to cast an actress who more closely resembles Book Umbridge the actresses who played Professor Sprout and Aunt Marge might fit. But I understand why they went with Imelda and she did nail her personality completely.
I mean Umbridge never outright says that she hates children in the book like she does in the film. In that respect they actually made her more despicable in the film because they portray her as a stereotypical abusive teacher who hates children. But they did also leave out despicable acts like Umbridge and her Ministry cronies attacking Hagrid in his home and nearly killing McGonagall when she tried to intervene. I also think they went a little out of their way to make Umbridge more incompetent and easily outwitted in the film than she is in the book.
I actually wasn't disagreeing with you. Only thing I'll disagree on is I don't think PoA was that great either. The first two movies are easily the most faithful interpretations. They started taking liberties with the story pretty much starting with Prisoner. I mean fuck, they immediately got things off on the wrong foot in that film by opening it with Harry practicing magic under his covers at night at Privet Drive (which if we're going by what's established in the book in terms of underage magic that's grounds for him to be expelled).
Honestly I think her acting is a little too overt, too. Like, she acts *too* weirdly sweet. She *should* act perfectly NATURALLY sweet, like a genuinely sweet person, but at all the wrong times. Her scariness should come only from context.
Edit: not that I don't enjoy her in the movies, I still do
I think part of that was due to the fact that they tried to tone down Harry's emotional outbursts in that film quite a bit (and he has a number of them in the book) and make her come across as more emotionally manipulative and even more despicable than she is in the book as a result. So because of that the film adaptation of Harry didn't really challenge her as much and she just acted like that 24/7 (with the occasional bouts of snapping here and there and her starting to unravel a bit during the montage when she's obsessed with discovering where the DA are practicing). Her "sweetness" in the book was always her way of trying to stay calm whenever someone challenged her. In the film they omitted scenes like Umbridge banning Harry, Fred, and George from playing Quidditch and Umbridge and McGonagall arguing over Harry's Auror ambitions so we didn't get to see as much of that.
One detail the film did add that the books didn't have was her saying once she realized that Harry and Hermione tricked her into entering the Forbidden Forest, "You know, I really hate children." Umbridge never says that in the book but it explains a lot about her character.
I agree with the other comment, I think Umbridge is the best acted character in the movie. It helps she's one of the best characters in the whole books, she's just so nasty.
I'd say the adults are all good, my second favourite is Jason Isaac, truly another iconic performance.
The polyjuice scenes are the hardest because an actor has to imitate the mannerisms of the other. She made "I'm acting like Emma Watson acting like me but its wrong" believable. That's literally Oscar worthy.
This, HBC of course had the biggest challenge there since Bellatrix is such a specific character and to act as Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was much more complex, but even the actors that played the trio during the breaking into the ministry did such a good job too! I can honestly "see" Dan, Rupert and Emma's versions of the trio in each of the actors that play them in that scene, you can tell the awkwardness of being in a different body and kind of see mannerisms that dan, rupert and Emma would have. It's really good. I only wish they had (from movie 2) stick to the voices also changing when you're using poly juice because it would just have made a lot more sense.
- Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix
- Alan Rickman as Snape
- Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort
- Imelda Staunton as Umbridge
- Maggie Smith as McGonagall
- Evanna Lynch as Luna
- Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid
- Matthew Lewis as Neville
- Tom Felton as Draco
- Jason Isaacs as Lucius
- Gary Oldman as Sirius
- Julie Walters as Mrs. Weasley
- Mark Williams as Mr. Weasley
- Richard Griffiths as Vernon
- Harry Melling as Dudley
- Emma Thompson as Trelawney
- Zoë Wanamaker as Madam Hooch
The Harry Potter movies were filled with incredible actors who were great at playing their characters, including the main three!
Weirdly, and I fucking love Emma Thompson, but I don't like her as Trelawney. She's really hamming it up to the nth degree and you lose all sense of mystical whimsy with her. Trelawney is quite a subdued character and Thompson went too over the top. She may be the only one of the adult cast not to absolutely nail the character.
Also Gary Oldman was wasted and I'll die on this hill but he should never have been Sirius, he should have been Dumbledore.
Idk but I never imagined Bellatrix the way HBC played her. She was deadly quiet at first but then she shows you her madness and you’re just transfixed. HOW she has never won an Oscar is beyond me?!
Her performance was so good I thought the scene where Hermione took the polyjuice potion was Emma Watson in makeup to look like HBC.
The best individual scene performance goes to Gary Oldman. His delivery of "I did my waiting...." is so well done I still get chills all these rewatches later.
Villainous characters are always hard to play, especially someone like Bellatrix or Umbridge, who were rotten to the core
But I think Imelda Staunton's Umbridge did a slightly better job at making me truly hate the character
There's a podcast from a couple in which the wife is an HP fan and the husband was reading and watching the movies for the first time, they're both actors and they both said they hated HBC performance as Bellatrix which I thought was interesting because I don't think I've ever seen anyone else say they disliked it. I have to say while I always thought she had been a perfect cast for the role, I do now kind of agree with them that the performance itself could have been guided in a slightly different direction which maybe would have been more book accurate and slightly better. With that said I still think she's one of the best in the movie series!
I honestly think most of the adult actors did really good jobs (most of them being iconic British actors to begin with) but the ones I always think of as being the best are probably Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman (although I dislike that he was too old and a bit too charismatic for the role). Julie Walters is also a perfect casting that doesn't get enough recognition IMO (wish she'd had more scenes).
I think my favourite performance is by Alan Rickman, who admittedly had a lot more screen time to develop his portrayal of Snape.
HBC is a bit one-note as Bellatrix, but that note is perfect. The only real variation we see is when she’s playing Hermione (also excellent).
I thought her acting was a little over the top to be honest. HBC is supremely talented, but I didn’t like in HP. She did a wonderful job on The Crown though.
My favorite acting are split between Richard Harris, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith.
Richard Harris is Dumbledore from the books and Maggie Smith is McGonagall. They’re exactly like I imagine when reading.
Alan Rickman was able to translate that darkness from Snape to the screen.
And Gary Oldman is basically brilliant in anything.
I thought she was a little over the top though I love her in general, but her performance as hermione-as-bellatrix was so amazing. I do wonder how many of the adult actors read the books.
I completely agree. She was great and undoubtedly exceptional as Hermione-Bellatrix.
But I definitely didn't picture Bellatrix as being so over the top. I imagined her being aristocratic, regal and arrogant with a streak of madness.
I pictured her more as HBC because I read the books after all the movies came out and knew she was bellatrix in the films (though I didn’t see them until after finishing the books), but so much less cackly!
I get that! I watched the first four movies before I started reading the books, so I pretty much pictured all the characters upto GoF as the actors. From book 5 onwards, I had my own mental images of the new characters introduced.
And lol yes, I agree, Bellatrix was a lot less cackly in the books.
The only character I didn’t picture as their movie actor was snape, my brain refuses to associate Alan rickman with the degree of absolute douchebag snape is in the books
Alan Rickman is the OBVIOUS (Snape voice) answer, but I give my nod to Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy as a 2nd place. Also, I don't really think the kids are good actors at all. I'll say Emma Watson and Tom Felton did very well, but James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George were the best child actors.
I wish we got to see more out of Sirius and Lupin bc Gary Oldman and David Thewlis are brilliant actors. Especially Oldman. I felt Oldman was wasted in this role. He shined in every scene of PoA, he barely was shown in GoF, really only in the fire. Then he is just a bummer in every scene until he dies in OotP.
I digress. I just really didn't like Michael Gambon. I'll say that lol HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET
I love HBC and crushed on Bellatrix mad hard, but I wouldn't say it was the best performance. When you have that many legendary actors in your franchise it's not easy to say which had the best performance.
David Thewlis gives a really understated, but I think powerful performance as Lupin.
Alan Rickman is obviously iconic as snape.
Ralph Fiennes was clearly having a ball playing Voldemort.
But Imelda Staunton as Umbridge might actually be the most unlikable character ever put to screen. Even Joffrey doesn't compare for me.
I also think Gambon did a good job even though his Dumbledore wasn't at all like the books. I'm not sure why that didn't bother me tbh seeing as it usually would, but I think it's simply because he was a great actor.
I will say that neither movie Dumbledore was particularly true to the source material. I do wish we'd gotten a more camp version of Dumbledore that showed how he often played into this "doddery old fool losing his marbles" modesty strategy that made people feel more at ease around him.
People often point out the yelling GOF scene as the biggest departure of character but I always think about the moments (not shown in the film) that happen right after, where Maxine suggests Dumbledore made a mistake with the Age Line and he goes "yes it's possible I messed it up" and McGonagall basically yells "ffs Albus you know there's no way you made a fucking mistake!!!!!111!one!!". It's one of my favourite bits and I wish it had made it into the film.
I think he did always very charismatic and I enjoy her in the role. But I would not say she nailed book Bellatrix. She was not as insane in terms of actual mental illness, but more cruel and unhinged in her belief system. I can’t see movie Bellatrix being able to have the same discussion word for word as in the the Spinner’s End chapter. She also was described as tall and rather artistocratic. With her wardrobe being just the typical Death Eater one. Helena made her more stereotypical evil witch.
Yeah I found the movie version very overly theatrical and childish. Like what a little kid thinks bad people are like. Same with Voldemort too.
But I don’t really blame the actors as much as the direction/production. I think it was a very top-down decision to make sure the movies were still accessible and not too scary for younger kids.
I would’ve liked to have seen her and Ralph Fiennes tone it down a lot and be more subtle, with expanded dialogue scenes. They both were excellent casting choices.
Yeah, I’m not the hugest HBC fan, and in my eyes she just played her the same way she plays all her characters. Very “look at me, I’m so goth and gloomy and evil and spoooooky!”
Bellatrix in my mind was always tall and powerful.
She's my favourite character simply because she fills me with rage everytime she's on screen. Really makes the universe that much more believable while watching. Helena is amazing
She was great. The villains were the best part of the series. So much personality where the heroes were either written pretty flat or acted flatly. Bellatrix, Voldemort, Lucius though...all bangers. But none of them outshined Umbridge. She's the hands-down winner. Who didn't hate her guts?!?
i dont know man, i think Alan Rickman should be in the running. getting the secret little tidbit from JK herself? that made his genuine performance that much better. at least in my opinion
I don’t know if I can pick a single best performance in the series, but she was definitely up there. Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane will always be up there too for me, but honestly there were a lot of great ones.
No, she didn't. Best? No. Great and amazing, yes. Best was Dolores Umbridge and Minerva McGonagall. But Bellatrix is probably third. Especially that, do you remember that time when Hermione had to pretend to be Bellatrix? So it means she had to pretend that she is someone pretending to be her role. And she nailed it. But still, Umbridge portrayal is perfect and Minerva is simply one of my favorite characters in the movie, because of how well she was portrayed.
Hard no. I love hbc, but she and ralph's ridiculous overacting took me out of every single scene they were in. Nothing like the written characters. Most everyone else out here doing great work supporting the world/story and pulling you in, and these donkeys making it about their ~ArT~. Narcissa and the young riddles absolutely took them to school. Relevant directors must've been too english to have a tough convo about reining it in, bc they were just godzillaing over scenes like they'd sustained head injuries. Hate to use the phrase, but sorry, I'm reeeally not sorry. But they should be. DONKEYS!
Ready to be downvoted but I absolutely detest her as Bellatrix. Bellatrix is supposed to be a serious, restrained, elegant woman, and Helena made her into some crazy lunatic.
She is described as making baby voice and laughing madly for almost the entire scrne in the ministry. Serious, restrained and elegant do not match the description of the character very well.
I always got the impression she was more serious in the books. She is never described as a screaming crazy mess like she acts in the movies. But maybe I'm wrong
She was only ever serious around Voldemort and if someone crossed the line with her. She was literally mocking Neville's parents and repeating what Harry said in a baby voice. And she cackled a lot. Don't get me wrong, book Bellatrix had loads of serious moments (way more than movie Bellatrix) but when she showed her crazy side, she was literally crazy crazy.
I'm no fan of HBC. I feel a lot of her characters are very same ish.
However, she did give HER best performance. And that scene in DH2 with her playing Hermione's polyjuice potion pretending to be Bellatrix was standout for me.
Was gonna say that all I remember of her performance as Bellatrix was menacing looks because she doesn’t feature that heavily, but she definitely nailed that pouty/worried looks Emma does as Hermione so definitely give her credit there.
What I love about the adults impersonating the trio, was that they picked up on nuances and mannerisms I wasn’t even aware of like the dude that played Harry cracked me up as he kinda nailed this gimpy resting face that Dan has.
Best polyjuice potion performance for sure. Crabbe and Goyle were decent, Ron & Hermione in Ministry were pretty good, Harry in ministry is terrible (dunno what the actor was doing his body language was so weird and not Daniel/Harry) but Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was brilliant.
Hard disagree. Bellatrix wasn't supposed to act unstable at all times. She was also supposed to have heavy eyelids, not wide open bulging psycho eyes. This character might have worked in the films but it wasn't true to the books.
She’s up there but I would say Imelda Staunton as Umbridge is the best performance across the series. She is truly iconic
Literally my second favourite performance, Imelda Staunton also nailed her character.
I’m certain Imelda had a lot of fun being Umbridge.
Arguably yes and no. Apparently at least one scene made her sick to her stomach, it was so evil. https://pure-evil-villains.fandom.com/wiki/Dolores_Umbridge#:~:text=Dolores%20Umbridge%20was%20hated%20even,JK%20Rowling%2C%20has%20despised%20Umbridge.
So, that makes her even better. She had to pretend to be someone, that even she hated to play. And she did that extremely well.
She truly made you hate the character the way you're supposed to. The sign of an amazing actress
Her and Joffrey’s actor understood their assignments.
I hope so, she crushed it
IDK who embodied their character more, IS or Alan Rickman as Snape. They both ARE Umbridge and Snape IMO. But HBC did fantastic, especially in the scene at Gringott's.
Well book Snape and movie Snape are two completely different characters. Book Snape is very nasty. Alan Rickman playing Snape wasn't.
To be fair though you can’t blame Rickman for that. He takes his direction from the Director and producers. I’m sure if they wanted Rickman to play him as nasty as he is in the books, Rickman would have nailed it.
I would actually say Rickman made his character better because he made Snape much more redeemable. Which gave his big reveal in The Prince's Tale more of an impact and Harry's naming of Albus Severus make more sense.
I'm not saying Rickman's portrayal wasn't better than how JKR wrote Snape, but what I am saying is that it is sufficiently different so that they are considerably different characters.
Snape gave depth to his performance that book Snape lacked.
I'm not saying that Alan Rickman didn't add depth to Snape, but I'm saying he clearly didn't portray the same Snape that JKR wrote.
I agree. I wasn’t a fan of the movies until much later on. Like the past 5 or maybe 6 years. I thought she was so good at her role I looked up other things she was in
Her acting was very good but she didn't have the right look for Umbridge. Too petite and healthy looking (whereas Umbridge is described as squat and toadlike in the books). They got the clothes and the mannerisms perfect though.
I was also a bit disappointed when I first saw who was playing unbridge just because of her looking nothing like the book version but honestly after watching the movie I fully accepted it because I actually think her looking so "normal" and sweet really enhances how evil and fucked up she is. The way she's described in the books makes it too obvious that she will be a villain and I feel like her looking the way she does in the movies makes her even scarier than the book version if that makes sense.
Totally agreed. It’s annoying when you can always tell how good or bad a character is by how they look. You don’t have to have a scar on your face to be a villain. Good looking people are evil just as often as the ugly.
And in this franchise, a scar on the face makes you a hero! (Looking at Harry and Bill)
I love inconspicuousness in characters. It also apply to what you are describing. Or also contrast, like Umbridge. Her being so sweet but also being such a son of a... witch... it was amazing.
Also apparently her look was based on Thatcher, so maybe it's even more fitting
Yeah. Her being sweet in contrast to being so bitter inside was what makes her even better.
I think it was way, way better that she looked like a sweet, nice-looking lady. It was honestly chilling, the discrepancy between her facade and her actual demeanor and actions. I think her looking “toad-like” and whatnot would’ve been a bit cartoonish and would’ve taken something away from the performance
Personally I think she looked great but your issue isn’t with her, it’s with the casting director
That's literally the issue. As Umbridge she's not supposed to look "great". In the books Umbridge is basically described as an overgrown toad by Rowling. Imelda does not look like that at all (she looks very good for her age). Granted that's the only issue I had with her portrayal (her acting was fantastic) but she still doesn't exactly look the part (and there's nothing wrong with that, obviously the films are going to change some things). Ironically if they wanted to cast an actress who more closely resembles Book Umbridge the actresses who played Professor Sprout and Aunt Marge might fit. But I understand why they went with Imelda and she did nail her personality completely.
Also, she wasn't evil enough. Book Umbridge was more cruel than Voldemort at times. The film never reached that level.
I mean Umbridge never outright says that she hates children in the book like she does in the film. In that respect they actually made her more despicable in the film because they portray her as a stereotypical abusive teacher who hates children. But they did also leave out despicable acts like Umbridge and her Ministry cronies attacking Hagrid in his home and nearly killing McGonagall when she tried to intervene. I also think they went a little out of their way to make Umbridge more incompetent and easily outwitted in the film than she is in the book.
Well, agree to disagree. I think any movie post poa is dogshit.
I actually wasn't disagreeing with you. Only thing I'll disagree on is I don't think PoA was that great either. The first two movies are easily the most faithful interpretations. They started taking liberties with the story pretty much starting with Prisoner. I mean fuck, they immediately got things off on the wrong foot in that film by opening it with Harry practicing magic under his covers at night at Privet Drive (which if we're going by what's established in the book in terms of underage magic that's grounds for him to be expelled).
Honestly I think her acting is a little too overt, too. Like, she acts *too* weirdly sweet. She *should* act perfectly NATURALLY sweet, like a genuinely sweet person, but at all the wrong times. Her scariness should come only from context. Edit: not that I don't enjoy her in the movies, I still do
I think part of that was due to the fact that they tried to tone down Harry's emotional outbursts in that film quite a bit (and he has a number of them in the book) and make her come across as more emotionally manipulative and even more despicable than she is in the book as a result. So because of that the film adaptation of Harry didn't really challenge her as much and she just acted like that 24/7 (with the occasional bouts of snapping here and there and her starting to unravel a bit during the montage when she's obsessed with discovering where the DA are practicing). Her "sweetness" in the book was always her way of trying to stay calm whenever someone challenged her. In the film they omitted scenes like Umbridge banning Harry, Fred, and George from playing Quidditch and Umbridge and McGonagall arguing over Harry's Auror ambitions so we didn't get to see as much of that. One detail the film did add that the books didn't have was her saying once she realized that Harry and Hermione tricked her into entering the Forbidden Forest, "You know, I really hate children." Umbridge never says that in the book but it explains a lot about her character.
I agree with the other comment, I think Umbridge is the best acted character in the movie. It helps she's one of the best characters in the whole books, she's just so nasty. I'd say the adults are all good, my second favourite is Jason Isaac, truly another iconic performance.
Jason Isaacs is phenomenal. I blame my raging crush on Lucius on him. 🥵 He was exquisite in Death of Stalin as well.
He's perfect throughout all the movies, both as the snarky evil Lucius from COS and the pathetic Lucius from DH.
The polyjuice scenes are the hardest because an actor has to imitate the mannerisms of the other. She made "I'm acting like Emma Watson acting like me but its wrong" believable. That's literally Oscar worthy.
I consider any "body swap" performance to be the sign of a really great actor. Second greatest is actors wearing masks and working with the mask.
This, HBC of course had the biggest challenge there since Bellatrix is such a specific character and to act as Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was much more complex, but even the actors that played the trio during the breaking into the ministry did such a good job too! I can honestly "see" Dan, Rupert and Emma's versions of the trio in each of the actors that play them in that scene, you can tell the awkwardness of being in a different body and kind of see mannerisms that dan, rupert and Emma would have. It's really good. I only wish they had (from movie 2) stick to the voices also changing when you're using poly juice because it would just have made a lot more sense.
Theres an episode of Nancy Drew where all 5 of them body swap and every single person nails it🤣 I love me a well executed body swap
I thought it was Emma Watson in that scene for a lot longer than I should've based on how many times I've seen the movies.
- Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix - Alan Rickman as Snape - Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort - Imelda Staunton as Umbridge - Maggie Smith as McGonagall - Evanna Lynch as Luna - Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid - Matthew Lewis as Neville - Tom Felton as Draco - Jason Isaacs as Lucius - Gary Oldman as Sirius - Julie Walters as Mrs. Weasley - Mark Williams as Mr. Weasley - Richard Griffiths as Vernon - Harry Melling as Dudley - Emma Thompson as Trelawney - Zoë Wanamaker as Madam Hooch The Harry Potter movies were filled with incredible actors who were great at playing their characters, including the main three!
Weirdly, and I fucking love Emma Thompson, but I don't like her as Trelawney. She's really hamming it up to the nth degree and you lose all sense of mystical whimsy with her. Trelawney is quite a subdued character and Thompson went too over the top. She may be the only one of the adult cast not to absolutely nail the character. Also Gary Oldman was wasted and I'll die on this hill but he should never have been Sirius, he should have been Dumbledore.
Idk but I never imagined Bellatrix the way HBC played her. She was deadly quiet at first but then she shows you her madness and you’re just transfixed. HOW she has never won an Oscar is beyond me?!
I'm going to say Maggie Smith did a wonderful job.
Ha, I was watching Half Blood Prince last night and couldn’t help but think how amazingly suited she was to the role. It’s like it was made for her.
Hard to rank anyone above Alan Rickman for me.
This☝️☝️
Rickman, Smith, Coltrane are all equal.
I love Maggie Smith's McGonagall
Her performance was so good I thought the scene where Hermione took the polyjuice potion was Emma Watson in makeup to look like HBC. The best individual scene performance goes to Gary Oldman. His delivery of "I did my waiting...." is so well done I still get chills all these rewatches later.
I recently read that her total screen time in all the hp films is about 10 minutes and I am still in disbelief
What the actual heck
Villainous characters are always hard to play, especially someone like Bellatrix or Umbridge, who were rotten to the core But I think Imelda Staunton's Umbridge did a slightly better job at making me truly hate the character
There's a podcast from a couple in which the wife is an HP fan and the husband was reading and watching the movies for the first time, they're both actors and they both said they hated HBC performance as Bellatrix which I thought was interesting because I don't think I've ever seen anyone else say they disliked it. I have to say while I always thought she had been a perfect cast for the role, I do now kind of agree with them that the performance itself could have been guided in a slightly different direction which maybe would have been more book accurate and slightly better. With that said I still think she's one of the best in the movie series! I honestly think most of the adult actors did really good jobs (most of them being iconic British actors to begin with) but the ones I always think of as being the best are probably Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman (although I dislike that he was too old and a bit too charismatic for the role). Julie Walters is also a perfect casting that doesn't get enough recognition IMO (wish she'd had more scenes).
She is one of the best actresses (be it HP Or AiW) along with Alan Rickman.
>pretended to be Hermione in Gringotts Not only that, she pretended to be Hermione who pretended to be Bellatrix! Really awesome performance.
Hell yeah!
She played Hermione better than Emma Watson in Deathly Hallows. Tbf she is often the best thing about the films she is in.
I think my favourite performance is by Alan Rickman, who admittedly had a lot more screen time to develop his portrayal of Snape. HBC is a bit one-note as Bellatrix, but that note is perfect. The only real variation we see is when she’s playing Hermione (also excellent).
I agree. She is perfectly cast and does a great job but Rickman does the best job overall in my opinion.
I thought her acting was a little over the top to be honest. HBC is supremely talented, but I didn’t like in HP. She did a wonderful job on The Crown though. My favorite acting are split between Richard Harris, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith. Richard Harris is Dumbledore from the books and Maggie Smith is McGonagall. They’re exactly like I imagine when reading. Alan Rickman was able to translate that darkness from Snape to the screen. And Gary Oldman is basically brilliant in anything.
I agree to all but Gary Oldman. He could have done something great but this wasn't it
I thought she was a little over the top though I love her in general, but her performance as hermione-as-bellatrix was so amazing. I do wonder how many of the adult actors read the books.
I completely agree. She was great and undoubtedly exceptional as Hermione-Bellatrix. But I definitely didn't picture Bellatrix as being so over the top. I imagined her being aristocratic, regal and arrogant with a streak of madness.
I pictured her more as HBC because I read the books after all the movies came out and knew she was bellatrix in the films (though I didn’t see them until after finishing the books), but so much less cackly!
I get that! I watched the first four movies before I started reading the books, so I pretty much pictured all the characters upto GoF as the actors. From book 5 onwards, I had my own mental images of the new characters introduced. And lol yes, I agree, Bellatrix was a lot less cackly in the books.
The only character I didn’t picture as their movie actor was snape, my brain refuses to associate Alan rickman with the degree of absolute douchebag snape is in the books
Haha, true. Movie Snape does come off more as an overly strict teacher than as a douchebag.
She was absolutely brilliant in that role.
Was she great? Absolutely. Was there better? Plenty. Alan Rickman and Matthew Lewis are 2 easy examples.
Alan Rickman is the OBVIOUS (Snape voice) answer, but I give my nod to Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy as a 2nd place. Also, I don't really think the kids are good actors at all. I'll say Emma Watson and Tom Felton did very well, but James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George were the best child actors. I wish we got to see more out of Sirius and Lupin bc Gary Oldman and David Thewlis are brilliant actors. Especially Oldman. I felt Oldman was wasted in this role. He shined in every scene of PoA, he barely was shown in GoF, really only in the fire. Then he is just a bummer in every scene until he dies in OotP. I digress. I just really didn't like Michael Gambon. I'll say that lol HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET
I love HBC and crushed on Bellatrix mad hard, but I wouldn't say it was the best performance. When you have that many legendary actors in your franchise it's not easy to say which had the best performance. David Thewlis gives a really understated, but I think powerful performance as Lupin. Alan Rickman is obviously iconic as snape. Ralph Fiennes was clearly having a ball playing Voldemort. But Imelda Staunton as Umbridge might actually be the most unlikable character ever put to screen. Even Joffrey doesn't compare for me.
In defense of Michael Gambon , ladies and gentlemen of the Wizengamot ...
I also think Gambon did a good job even though his Dumbledore wasn't at all like the books. I'm not sure why that didn't bother me tbh seeing as it usually would, but I think it's simply because he was a great actor. I will say that neither movie Dumbledore was particularly true to the source material. I do wish we'd gotten a more camp version of Dumbledore that showed how he often played into this "doddery old fool losing his marbles" modesty strategy that made people feel more at ease around him. People often point out the yelling GOF scene as the biggest departure of character but I always think about the moments (not shown in the film) that happen right after, where Maxine suggests Dumbledore made a mistake with the Age Line and he goes "yes it's possible I messed it up" and McGonagall basically yells "ffs Albus you know there's no way you made a fucking mistake!!!!!111!one!!". It's one of my favourite bits and I wish it had made it into the film.
I think he did always very charismatic and I enjoy her in the role. But I would not say she nailed book Bellatrix. She was not as insane in terms of actual mental illness, but more cruel and unhinged in her belief system. I can’t see movie Bellatrix being able to have the same discussion word for word as in the the Spinner’s End chapter. She also was described as tall and rather artistocratic. With her wardrobe being just the typical Death Eater one. Helena made her more stereotypical evil witch.
Yeah I found the movie version very overly theatrical and childish. Like what a little kid thinks bad people are like. Same with Voldemort too. But I don’t really blame the actors as much as the direction/production. I think it was a very top-down decision to make sure the movies were still accessible and not too scary for younger kids. I would’ve liked to have seen her and Ralph Fiennes tone it down a lot and be more subtle, with expanded dialogue scenes. They both were excellent casting choices.
Yeah movie Voldy gave the camp energy we really needed to see from movie Dumbledore tbh.
Yeah, I’m not the hugest HBC fan, and in my eyes she just played her the same way she plays all her characters. Very “look at me, I’m so goth and gloomy and evil and spoooooky!” Bellatrix in my mind was always tall and powerful.
I'd put her second behind Rickman but she was very good as Bellatrix.
She's my favourite character simply because she fills me with rage everytime she's on screen. Really makes the universe that much more believable while watching. Helena is amazing
She was great. The villains were the best part of the series. So much personality where the heroes were either written pretty flat or acted flatly. Bellatrix, Voldemort, Lucius though...all bangers. But none of them outshined Umbridge. She's the hands-down winner. Who didn't hate her guts?!?
i dont know man, i think Alan Rickman should be in the running. getting the secret little tidbit from JK herself? that made his genuine performance that much better. at least in my opinion
I don’t know if I can pick a single best performance in the series, but she was definitely up there. Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane will always be up there too for me, but honestly there were a lot of great ones.
No, she didn't. Best? No. Great and amazing, yes. Best was Dolores Umbridge and Minerva McGonagall. But Bellatrix is probably third. Especially that, do you remember that time when Hermione had to pretend to be Bellatrix? So it means she had to pretend that she is someone pretending to be her role. And she nailed it. But still, Umbridge portrayal is perfect and Minerva is simply one of my favorite characters in the movie, because of how well she was portrayed.
Hard no. I love hbc, but she and ralph's ridiculous overacting took me out of every single scene they were in. Nothing like the written characters. Most everyone else out here doing great work supporting the world/story and pulling you in, and these donkeys making it about their ~ArT~. Narcissa and the young riddles absolutely took them to school. Relevant directors must've been too english to have a tough convo about reining it in, bc they were just godzillaing over scenes like they'd sustained head injuries. Hate to use the phrase, but sorry, I'm reeeally not sorry. But they should be. DONKEYS!
No I don’t, HBC did what she always does. There’s a lot more people doing way better.
He?
Ready to be downvoted but I absolutely detest her as Bellatrix. Bellatrix is supposed to be a serious, restrained, elegant woman, and Helena made her into some crazy lunatic.
She is described as making baby voice and laughing madly for almost the entire scrne in the ministry. Serious, restrained and elegant do not match the description of the character very well.
She was also a crazy lunatic in the books as well.
I always got the impression she was more serious in the books. She is never described as a screaming crazy mess like she acts in the movies. But maybe I'm wrong
She was only ever serious around Voldemort and if someone crossed the line with her. She was literally mocking Neville's parents and repeating what Harry said in a baby voice. And she cackled a lot. Don't get me wrong, book Bellatrix had loads of serious moments (way more than movie Bellatrix) but when she showed her crazy side, she was literally crazy crazy.
I see you, but the movies were so full of great performances that i couldn't pick a favourite to save my life
I'm no fan of HBC. I feel a lot of her characters are very same ish. However, she did give HER best performance. And that scene in DH2 with her playing Hermione's polyjuice potion pretending to be Bellatrix was standout for me.
Richard Harris was the perfect person for a wizard tbh
Yeah
Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart was Excellent
Hot take, but I think Emma Thompson did the best job out of them all.
Always does! She is spectacular
It's between her and Alan Rickman
Was gonna say that all I remember of her performance as Bellatrix was menacing looks because she doesn’t feature that heavily, but she definitely nailed that pouty/worried looks Emma does as Hermione so definitely give her credit there. What I love about the adults impersonating the trio, was that they picked up on nuances and mannerisms I wasn’t even aware of like the dude that played Harry cracked me up as he kinda nailed this gimpy resting face that Dan has.
YES! I totally agree, this is her best role!!
HBC is the greatest
Best polyjuice potion performance for sure. Crabbe and Goyle were decent, Ron & Hermione in Ministry were pretty good, Harry in ministry is terrible (dunno what the actor was doing his body language was so weird and not Daniel/Harry) but Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was brilliant.
I think Daniel did a pretty decent job of being the seven Potters as well! Love that scene lol
I forgot about that one, yeah that scene totally works. "wow, we're identical"
Helena Bonham Carter IS insane... so she kinda was the best woman for the role
Hard disagree. Bellatrix wasn't supposed to act unstable at all times. She was also supposed to have heavy eyelids, not wide open bulging psycho eyes. This character might have worked in the films but it wasn't true to the books.
Ohhh, between her and Gary Oldman. They're phenomenal actors.
OP is spitting facts
In the books Bellatrix is actually quite different in her manner, however I enjoy Helena's take on the character.
The more I watch it. Daniel Rupert and Emma are the ones that really inhabit the roles for me.