Helena Bonham Carter has taken an unusual approach to prepare to play the late Princess Margaret on Season 3 of "The Crown."
The two-time Oscar nominee hired a psychic to reach out to the late royal in hopes it might help her better understand and nail her portrayal of Margaret opposite Olivia Colman as Margaret's sister, Queen Elizabeth II, as they film the hit Netflix series, reports Britain's The Sun.
"[Helena] always likes to research her roles with as much depth as possible and is always prepared to go that extra mile," a TV insider told the newspaper. "So if that means using someone with supernatural powers to speak to a character who is now on the other side, then Helena has no problems with doing that. She is naturally spiritual and open-minded and is delighted she's had such positive feedback from the late royal."
According to The Sun's insider, Margaret — who died at age 72 in 2002 — has let Helena know that she's "doing a great job."
This isn't the first time Helena, 52, has called in a psychic for help. The Sun reports that the "Harry Potter" franchise alum, who has two children with filmmaker ex Tim Burton, tapped a psychic for professional advice a few years ago when she believed her house was haunted and again when she was prepping to play another late icon, Elizabeth Taylor, in the 2013 BBC drama "Burton & Taylor."
In an interview with IndieWire, Helena revealed that while preparing to play Liz, she studied a massive file about the movie star and, she admitted, "I even asked a psychic — I'm completely wacko — who was actually de-ghosting our house."
Pressed to share more about her paranormal expert, Helena explained, "A friend of mine is a psychic. He's good at moving people on because we've had some ghost issues in the house. I told him I was in a real dilemma about the role, and he came back with the answer, 'Intellectually it makes no sense whatsoever, but emotionally it's a nine out of 10.'" Why? "Because there was some reason I had to do it. And I did feel something spiritual. All my friends told me not to do it, but I just felt I had to. I don't know why, but I certainly had fun. And she's given me a lot. By finding [out] about her through her biographies. I went to my astrologer too."
Helena told IndieWire she's also been known to tap her aunt, who's a graphologist, or someone who analyzes handwriting.
Helena is taking over the role of Princess Margaret from Vanessa Kirby, who played the royal as a young woman. Helena and co-star Olivia, who's taking over for Emmy winner Claire Foy, were photographed in Winchester, England, on Sept. 17 wearing black period costumes as they shot scenes at former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's 1965 funeral.
Back in June, Helena told Variety she and her new castmates were thrilled to get started on Season 3, which will debut in 2019. "It's exciting. We start in a few weeks, and I think we're all — we're completely terrified. I think also because the first two seasons were such a success, we have the onus of inheriting the responsibility of doing justice to all these genuinely famous people, and then on top of it, inheriting them from this previous generation of actors who've done such good jobs."
"None of us look at all like our previous generation," she added. "We don't actually look like our real people either. I don't look like Margaret. I don't think Olivia looks particularly like the queen, but it's interesting. We just have to try and create some sort of essence. The good thing is that all the characters are so multifaceted, so we will probably capture different bits."