She was natural within Golders Green, in London, and educated at Westminster School. Her father come from either the noted British political and theatrical family; she is the nifty-granddaughter of the previous Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Herbert Henry Asquith, and members of her personal come Life Peers. Her enatic gramps was the Spanish ambassador and the Catholic; her maternal gran come from either the rich Austrian-based Jewish family, and got converted to Catholicism upon marrying her ambassador husb& (despite a conversion, two Helena and her mother come considered Jewish; Helena identifies as a Jewish Catholic). She occurs as outstanding-grandniece of the late Baroness Liliane de Rothschild (1916-2003) of the Rothschild banking family, as her enatic granny's sister married the member of the Rothschild personal.

These are the matter of interpretation what her film debut was. Strictly speaking, her 1st role was withinside the little a share in an obscure film The Pattern of Roses, however this is little remembered. Her number 1 starring role to become filmed was inside Lady Jane, which was eventually freed to somewhat mixed reviews. Her breakthrough was A Room with a View, which was filmed later however freed earliest. These films led to her existence typecast as a "corset queen", an "English rose" in costume dramas, but in time she expanded her range.

For two or three years she was within the relationship by using Kenneth Branagh (costing Branagh his own marriage to Emma Thompson) and it appeared within the total of films together, however it stock split. Since 2001 she has been engaged to Tim Burton whom she met while filming Planet of the Apes. It develop 1 boy, Billy-Ray Burtin, innate on October 4, 2003.

Selected filmography
Netty within The Pattern of Roses (1983) Lady Jane Grey in Lady Jane (1986) Lucy Honeychurch inside A Room with a View (1986) (novel by E. M. Forster) Ophelia in Hamlet (1990) (film by Franco Zeffirelli) Caroline Abbott within Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) (novel by E. M. Forster) Helen Schlegel inside Howards End (1992) (novel by E. M. Forster) Elizabeth within ''Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) Margaret MacNeil around Margaret's Museum (1995) Armanda Weinrib inside Mighty Aphrodite (1995) (film by Woody Allen) Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove (1997) (novel by Henry James) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress Rosemary around Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997) (novel by George Orwell) Morgan le Fay in Merlin (1998) Marla Singer inside Fight Club (1999) (novel by Chuck Palahniuk) Ari within Planet of the Apes (2001) Susan Ivey within Novocaine (2001) Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII (2003) Jenny/The Witch inside Big Fish (2003) Mrs. Pail inside Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) directed by her fiancé Tim Burton A Corpse Bride inside Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (voice, 2005) Lady Bellflower Tottington within Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' (voice, 2005)