Is there Harry Potter without the crazy maniacal laugh and evil antics of Bellatrix Lestrange? We can hardly watch Order of the Phoenix without hearing her screaming "I killed Sirius Black!" in our heads.
All of her craziness was brought to life by the incomparable Helena Bonham Carter of course, who was perfect for the role. She's practically the princess of darkness herself offscreen, so it really wasn't much of a struggle getting into character.
It's nuts to think about, but could you imagine someone else playing Bellatrix? Neither can we, but there could have very well been someone else as the villain. It all came down to the pregnancy of another Harry Potter alum, one that we sadly just lost.
Helen McCrory Was Originally Cast
The Harry Potter family has just lost one of its finest.
Helen McCrory, who played Narcissa Malfoy in the franchise, passed away at the age of 52 on April 16th, after a very private battle with cancer, her husband, Damian Lewis, announced.
"Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress," Lewis wrote in his tribute of his late wife, published in the Times. "She was a people person, sure. 'I'm much more interested in who I'm with than where I am,' she would say, and innately wanted to share. But she also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things out into the world to make it better, to make people feel better."
Tom Felton, her Harry Potter son, also paid tribute to his on-screen mom, along with J.K. Rowling and the rest of the Harry Potter family.
"So sad to say farewell so suddenly - I never took the chance to tell her, but she helped shape me as a person so much - on & off-screen," Felton said. "She was always relentlessly herself- razor-sharp wit - silver-tongued - kind & warm-hearted - she suffered no fools yet had time for everyone - thank you for lighting the way forward & holding my hand when I needed it xx."
But as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter mourns McCrory, along with the rest of the world who admired her, let's remember back to when she was originally cast as Bellatrix. Yeah, you heard us right. McCrory was set to play the villain before it went to Bonham Carter.
McCrory first starred as Narcissa in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and she went on to reprise her role in Deathly Hallows: Part One and Two. But she's been around Harry Potter a lot longer.
She was cast as Bellatrix, Narcissa's sister, back before Order of the Phoenix. But she had to drop out because she got pregnant with her and Lewis' first child, their daughter Manon. So Bonham Carter took the role instead.
Bonham Carter told Entertainment Weekly in 2010: "They came to me [after McCrory had to leave the project] and I loved it. I love magic, I love witches, I love the whole [Harry Potter] world. I was all too happy to play a witch." That sounds like something she would say (this is also the woman who talked to Princess Margaret's spirit through a psychic before playing her in The Crown).
McCrory had her second child, a son, a year later, in 2007, the year Order of the Phoenix premiered, so she was free to play Narcissa when they started filming in 2008.
Would McCrory Have Done A Good Job As Bellatrix?
Even though McCrory got another part, it still leaves us wondering how she would have portrayed the villain. Of course, we're not doubting whether she'd have been capable or could have done the part justice. If you've seen her as Aunt Polly from Peaky Blinders it's easy to picture her in the role. But there's no mistaking, Bonham Carter certainly may have put a wackier edge to Bellatrix that no one else could.
"I think I probably made her a bit more insane and unhinged then she was meant to be," Bonham Carter continued. "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. At one point she might have been attractive, but no longer."
Either way, we got two sisters, one that was evil to the very end and one that would do anything to protect her son and pretty much had a hand in killing Voldemort himself. McCrory is better as Narcissa and Bonham Carter is better as Bellatrix anyway. Bonham Carter has Manon McCrory-Lewis to thank for getting such a great role though.