What's happened to Helena?

Helena Bonham Carter spent hours in make-up for her role in Tim Burton's big budget remake of the 1960's cult classic, Planet of the Apes, which smashed American box office records last weekend.

She is unrecognisable as an upper class chimp, Ari, who falls in love with a human. The film's success will project her into the Hollywood A-list. But her grungey appearance at the US premiere, has led some to ask what has happened to her classic English rose looks?

Best known for her role as the young and innocent Lucy Honeychurch in Merchant Ivory's classic adaptation of EM Forster's novel, A Room with a View, Helena epitomised the classic English Rose, with flowing pre-Raphaelite hair and delicate features.

But it became a stereotype she soon seemed desperate to shake off. And offscreen she rapidly adopted an increasingly bohemian look.

She got rid of the hair which was so much her trademark. The long, loose curls gave way to a short and spiky look.

And suddenly she was offered a different kind of role. Director, David Fincher, cast her alongside Brad Pitt in Fight Club, playing a messed-up social misfit. And Hollywood saw her in a different light.

Her role in Planet of the Apes will improve her ranking in Hollywood further. But it seems that roles in English period dramas are well and truly behind her.

Few actresses would have fared so well if they'd dare to reject a traditional glamorous off-screen image. So whatever you think of the grunge look you have to admire her for being able to get away with it.

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