Sure, Helena Bonham Carter has one enormous-sized head in her latest role, but don't think for a second that it's due to an inflated ego.

Instead, Bonham Carter is humbled by the raves she's won for playing the delectably devious Red Queen in the blockbuster hit "Alice in Wonderland" -- the fearless foe of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and a 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska), who returns to Underland to face the big-headed tyrant.

While the effects in "Wonderland" -- particularly that of the Red Queen -- are visually dazzling, Bonham Carter was glad that her creative and personal partner, director Tim Burton, paved the way for her to play the eternally bratty character tongue-in-cheek (and in a very large cheek at that).

"I always love his humor -- it's very engaging," said Bonham Carter in an @ The Movies phone interview from Paris Monday, just ahead of the film's French premiere. "Between that and the 3-D, visual effects and the subject matter -- which is a great marriage in this case -- I'm always amazed by what's contained in his head."

Back To The Drawing Board

While fans of Burton's work have come to know him as a visual artist on film, his roots actually are in sketch drawings and paintings -- more than 1,000 of which are revealed in the new book "The Art of Tim Burton" (SteelesPublishing.com). Among the collection is a faux-blood stained, sketched portrait of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd that distinctly resembled Bonham Carter and Depp -- roles that would prophetically be realized by the acclaimed actors years later.

"I'd like to think that Tim drew me into existence -- but don't tell my mum that, she'd resent that. She's always felt that she didn't have much to do with me," Bonham Carter said, laughing. "He found the picture while we were in the middle of the film and showed it to me and said, 'My God, this picture looks like you and Johnny and I didn't even know you then.' It's eerie. But I'm glad he found it."

Also featured in the book is Burton's sketch of the Red Queen -- which he used as an artistic way to communicate to Bonham Carter that he wanted her to play the part in "Alice in Wonderland."

"He said, 'It's has to be you for the part. I drew you.' I feel honored that I feature in his imagination if not unconsciousness, even if I'm a big-headed person," Bonham Carter mused.

On the flip side, the ballooned-version of the Red Queen's cranium comes via the wonders of computer animation. And without suffering the least imbalance of her equilibrium, Bonham Carter said she was able to wrap her head around (so to speak) seeing herself on-screen much better than other roles she's played in the past.

"The first time I saw myself with the animated head was when I went in to do some voice dubbing," Bonham Carter recalled. "Usually I find that process so depressing because I'm really allergic to watching myself -- but I must say the big head thing took the edge off of the allergy and I found myself watchable for once."

Of course, film fans have no problem at all watching Bonham Carter, and have time and again found her roles -- particularly in Burton's films -- to be a welcome antidote to their otherwise cinematic ills. To date she's starred in five of the filmmaker's projects, starting in 2001 with "Planet of the Apes," and followed by "Big Fish" in 2003, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Corpse Bride" in 2005, and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" in 2007.

Contrary to any public presumptions that Bonham Carter is automatically cast in his films because of her and Burton's longtime relationship (the couple has two young children, Billy and Nell), the actress said she goes through the audition process just like any other performer.

The one edge she does have over others, though, is that she's willing to take on without fear the look and feel that the role demands – whether it be a primate in "Planet of the Apes," a one-eyed witch in "Big Fish," or of course, an evil queen with a penchant for screaming (or nonchalantly saying in some cases) "Off with their heads!" in "Alice in Wonderland."

"Tim is always prepared to see me in different lights, which is what I love. One of the first things he ever said to me was that before he even met me, he knew that I could play a chimpanzee," Bonham Carter said, laughing. "He's never cast me for what I look like, which I'm grateful to him for. He knows that I'm willing to dress up and camouflage myself. We really understand each other, intuitively."

Of course, only the imaginings of such of a big-headed person could come from somebody's mind as expansive as Burton's. And while Bonham Carter knows Burton better than anybody, she admits that there are many untapped corners of the filmmaker's mind that even she's unaware of.

"There are millions of untapped corners," Bonham Carter said. "The thing about Tim that's led to so much of his success is that he's in touch with his own unconsciousness. Now that sounds like an oxymoron or a contradiction, but he's so open about letting his ideas come to the fore. I think anyone's mind is that way, and possibly particularly his, has limitless areas that have yet to be plumbed."

Back Down The Rabbit Hole?

Despite the phenomenal worldwide success of "Alice," Bonham Carter said that she's heard no talk of going back to "Wonderland" for more adventures based on author Lewis Carroll's classic tales.

And for the moment, the lack of plans suits her just fine. The film has been such a monumental undertaking and quite frankly, Bonham Carter said that she just wants her Tim back home in London.

"He spent the last 18 months working on the film, and the last eight months of them in LA in a green-land rabbit hole making it," Bonham Carter said. "He needs to be put to bed now, watered and fed. And he needs sleep."

In the meantime, Bonham Carter will return to being wicked in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," where she'll once again play Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, who giddily taunted Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in "The Half-Blood Prince" with the chant, "I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!"

"I enjoyed doing that. I think it should be a ring tone," Bonham Carter beamed.

But not before too long, look for Burton to be back at the helm with "Frankenweenie," a stop-motion animated feature update based on his own live action short film from 1984. The film is due in theaters in 2011, but Bonham Carter is unsure if she'll be a part of Burton's troupe for this one.

"There's no word yet and I don't expect there to be until the last minute, and even if he asks, 'Do you want to play the dog?' of course I'll say yes. Every single time he says, 'This will be the last,' and I say, 'Uh-hmm, this is the last,'" Bonham Carter laughed.