That Awkward Moment When Helena Bonham Carter Posed Naked With A Fish

Yes, you heard right. In what looks like an incredibly awkward moment, the newly single and available Helena Bonham Carter was caught naked with a gigantic tuna fish. On Valentine’s Day of all days.

You might start thinking that this is a strange offshoot from Fifty Shades of Grey, but no, Fifty Shades of Tuna it is not. She’s getting goosebumps for an extremely good cause.

According to the Daily Mail, Helena, 48, has a phobia about fish, making it an awkward moment indeed, but it seems not about posing in the nude. She got over her fishy phobia when she realized just how much danger sea life is in these days and decided to support the Fishlove campaign run by the Blue Marine Foundation, a group campaigning for marine reserves around the world in order to protect endangered species.

Bonham Carter apparently split from her boyfriend, director Tim Burton, in December, and was thus available to take on the project after her friend, Greta Scacchi, got her involved.

Helena told the Daily Mail that she is “a big supporter of protecting the marine environment,” even though she is “very phobic about fish.” When Greta asked her to post, she still said yes.

“I’m actually very phobic about fish so when Greta asked me to be photographed naked with a 27kg tuna I was more worried about touching it than getting my kit off.

“Having said that, I conquered my fears and by the end of the morning we’d truly bonded. He will be my Valentine.”

Bonham Carter also attended the House of Commons meeting in London Wednesday, where she told everyone gathered there just how important it is to protect tuna.

“It would be a sad thing if in our dotage we’d be describing a tuna fish to our grandchildren like we do a dodo today. We all have a responsibility to try and return our world to the next generation in the state we inherited it in, not worse.”

The fish used in the photo shoot was a Bigeye tuna, which apparently belongs to the wider mackerel family Scombridae and quite a handsome fish he is too. Apparently in the UK, this is one of the many species being over-fished. The photos can be viewed here.

The foundation is not just fighting for tuna, however, but is also lobbying for more protection for whales, turtles, penguins, and seabirds.

Apparently, Helena isn’t the first to pose with fishes. Actress Emilia Fox and model Lizzie Jagger have also posed for Fishlove, as did her friend and mentor in the project, Greta Scacchi. X-Files star Gillian Anderson had an awkward moment with a rather large eel of some kind.

In the meanwhile, when Bonham Carter is not having an awkward moment with a fish, she is busy with movies. She just completed filming Disney’s Cinderella, set to be released in March, and is also busy filming a TV movie, Codes of Conduct, which is apparently the tale of a mysterious young man who makes his way into New York’s high society.

The busy actress also has a role in Suffragette playing alongside Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan. Then there will be an awkward moment when she says, “Off with her head,” as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. In the latter, she will be appearing with Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, and Mia Wasikowska. Apparently, the movie is slated for release on May 27, 2016.

The video below tells more about the Blue Marine Foundation.

So while it all looks like a very awkward moment, as USA Today says, Helena Bonham Carter is really getting involved to help the Blue Marine Foundation in their cause.

[Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Little Phoenix]