I expected proposal rather than Alice role from Tim Burton, says Helena Carter World April 6, 2021 Helena Bonham Carter has said she thought her former partner Tim Burton was going to propose when he asked her to star in his film adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. The Crown star plays the Red Queen in the big-screen version of Lewis Carroll’s classic book and its sequel. The first film, released in 2010, was directed by Burton, who was Bonham Carter’s long-time partner at the time and who is father of her two children. Writing in Harper’s Bazaar UK, she said: “Back in 2008, my ex Tim Burton asked me to have a meeting at his office.“This was unusual, for at the time, I shared a home with him and our two young children down the other end of the road. What was so important that he couldn’t ask me over Cheerios?