The character of the Red Queen is a combination of Lewis Carroll's colorful characters the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen. The Queen is portrayed by actress Helena Bonham Carter, who underwent a three hour process to tranform her into the emotionally unbalanced individual that sticks out from the crowd due to her over sized head.
According to the screenwriter Linda Woolverton, "there's a tumor in her head and its pressing on the bit that controls the emotions" (Pg 51). Since she has this deformity, the Queen's reasoning behind chopping peoples' heads off is some what more clear. By doing this she is able to rule with fear as well as cope with her insecurities of having a large head while others around her have normal ones.
The look of the queen was inspired by the actress Bette Davis in her role as Queen Elizabeth I in the 1939 film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, directed by Micheal Curtiz. The make up artists took the high forehead, shaved eyebrows and red wig from the film and morphed it into something new for Alice.
Colleen Atwood was the lead costume designer for Alice in Wonderland, she has worked with Burotn before as well as Carter and Depp. In the book Alice in Wonderland: A Visual Companion, she explains her idea behind the design of the Red Queen's wardrobe. "I based her dress on a version of the heart theme, a graphic lifted from palying cards but at the same time, i tired to not make it look too much like a playing card made into a dress... I wanted to keep it playful and keep it a little cheesy because the Red Queen is, in fact, a bit tacky. So its not the best of materials" (pg 59).
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