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Helena Bonham Carter celebrates her 49th birthday. Here, she arrives for the screening of the movie "Cinderella" at the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin on February 13. Reuters

Actress Helena Bonham Carter celebrated her 49th birthday on Tuesday. The Golders Green, London-born, two-time Academy Award nominee is known for her roles in films such as “Fight Club,” “Big Fish,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and the "Harry Potter" franchise. She was also married to film director Tim Burton but the pair separated in December of last year. They have two children. Here, we celebrate Bonham Carter’s birth with ten quotes from the eccentric actress, courtesy of Brainy Quote, Interview Magazine and the Guardian.

  • "I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I'm quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles."

  • "I enjoy those small chats you have when people come up and talk to you about your work. It only involves a few seconds of effort to be nice to those people, and I am very grateful for the kind words that people have taken the trouble to express to me in person."

  • "If you're a queen, you're powerless, so I'd probably demote myself and go shopping."

  • "I have to struggle to change people's perceptions of me. I grew very frustrated with the perception that I'm this shy, retiring, inhibited aristocratic creature when I'm absolutely not like that at all. I think I'm much more outgoing and exuberant than my image."

  • "It took me ages to grow into being a woman, into being happy with it."

  • "I think my mouth just opens and I spontaneously say things that occur to me."

  • "I'm often criticized for what I wear. That's my main label in the press now: disastrous dresser!"

  • "I don't think kids have a problem with death. It's us older ones who are nearer to it, that start being frightened."

  • "I drink booze, I smoke, and I'm hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I'm not physically repressed!"

  • "When I was young I had so many inferiority complexes. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't go to university. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't train. Then it gets tiring. And you do get bored of it."

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