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Bellatrix Lestrange (nee Black) is a significant antagonist in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. She is the cousin and murderer of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black.
Personality[]
Like the rest of the Black family (except for Sirius), Bellatrix was sorted into Slytherin House, which gave her the usual belief that Muggle-borns were inferior. After leaving Hogwarts, she became one of Voldemort's most loyal cronies.
Maniacal, ruthless, and sadistic, Bellatrix takes great pleasure in torturing and eliminating anyone who opposes or threatens her master.
Physical Appearance[]
Bellatrix had the classic "great good looks" and arrogant bearing common for members of the House of Black. She was a tall woman with long, thick, shiny dark hair. Her face had a strong jaw, a thin mouth,and heavily lidded eyes with long eyelashes.
As a Death Eater, Bellatrix bore the Dark Mark on her left inner forearm. However, (like her cousin Sirius Black) her lengthy imprisonment in Azkaban took a toll on her appearance. Her face became gaunt and skull-like, but she still managed to retain vestiges of her great beauty.
There was a remarkable resemblance between Bellatrix and her sisters — at first glance, Harry mistook Andromeda Tonks for Bellatrix, being was only upon closer observation did he notice the differences (Andromeda had lighter brown hair, a kinder face, and wider eyes). Besides this, Narcissa Malfoy was as fair as Bellatrix was dark.
Appearances[]
Films[]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1[]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2[]
Video games[]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1[]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2[]
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7[]
Relationships[]
Quotes[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- An odd change to the Deathly Hallows from the book to the film was both Bellatrix's final words and their placement. In the book, her final words were "What will happen to your children once I've killed you? When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?" These were said after nearly killing Ginny with the Killing Curse. In the film, her final lines were much earlier, when she said "No! No, come back! Lucius! Come back! Come back and fight! Come back!" after the Malfoys left the fight. She was completely silent aside from a maniacal laugh during her final scene.
- The most likely reason for this was because, during the filming of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Helena Bonham Carter also filmed The King's Speech. She was glad about this because she could spare her voice and did not have to scream all day and these final words would have had her screaming.
- Helen McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix in the films, but was forced to withdraw due to pregnancy, resulting in Bonham Carter replacing her. McCrory would later play Narcissa Malfoy in the films.
- In the film, Bellatrix's last battle against Molly until her death and moments where she corners Ginny was depicted very differently, though in both cases, she starts off cornering Ginny with the Killing Curse:
- In the film, Ginny was cornered after using the Shield Charm to deflect a curse from Bellatrix, possibly the Killing Curse, before Molly takes over and duels her to her death, for trying to harm her daughter. If she did cast the Killing Curse against Ginny, this is canonically false, as in canon, this spell cannot be blocked with any kind of Shield Charm. In the book, Ginny was cornered along with Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood and survived the Killing Curse simply by avoiding it by an inch.
- Bellatrix's battle was more intense in the book, as the book describes the ground between the two dueling Witches becoming increasingly hot and cracked while they both fire curses at each other. Bellatrix even sadistically mocks Molly over Fred's death, which was her very fatal mistake due to underestimating her opponent.
- Bellatrix's death was different in the film series, compared to its portrayal in the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the book, while dueling Molly Weasley, she is killed by Molly after she hits her in her chest with an unknown but deadly curse, which causes her lifeless corpse to fall to the ground, leaving her with a frozen expression on her face. However, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, while also dueling Molly Weasley, Molly manages to overpower her and cast a spell on her which suspends her in the air and freezes her body, and then disintegrates her with a curse into black smithereens.
- Ironically, Bellatrix Lestrange's actress, Helena Bonham Carter, is much more amicable and easily got along with her fellow actors and actresses throughout the filming of the Harry Potter films. Tom Felton, Draco Malfoy's actor, constantly mentions how amusing it is to see Helena Bonham Carter play a half-crazy murderer when the camera rolls, and return to being a perfectly normal woman once the scene ends.
- While filming the stand-off scene in the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Helena profusely apologized to Matthew Lewis, Neville Longbottom's actor, upon discovering that she injured one of his eardrums by mistake. At that time, she ad-libbed by sticking her wand prop in his ear "as a sort of Q-Tip...(to) sort of torture (his ear)" only for him to unexpectedly move his head towards her, resulting the aforementioned injury.
- Similarly, after shooting the scene where Bellatrix carved "Mudblood" into Hermione's arm during the torture scene of Deathly Hallows - Part 1, which admittedly was an idea that she and Emma Watson (Hermione's actress) came up together on the spur of the moment during filming, the intensity and brutality of the scene concerned Helena so much that she approached Emma Watson immediately afterwards to make sure they were still on good terms.
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