TORONTO -- Although “The Room Next Door” is Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, Tilda Swinton notes that he’s never written in a language that anyone else truly speaks.“He writes in Pedro language, and here he is making another film in another version of Pedro language, which just happens to sound a little bit like English,” Swinton said.Set in New York, Swinton stars as Martha, a terminally ill woman who chooses to end her life on her own terms.After reconnecting with her friend Ingrid, played by Julianne Moore, Martha persuades her to stay and keep her company before she goes through with her decision.Beyond the film’s narrative, Swinton said she believes individuals should have a say in their own living and dying.
She acknowledges that she has personally witnessed a friend’s compassionate departure.“In my own life I had the great good fortune to be asked by someone in Martha’s position to be his Ingrid (Julianne Moore),” Swinton said.She said that experience shaped her attitude about life and death: “Not only my capacity to be witness to other people in that situation, but my own living and my own dying.”Swinton spoke to The Associated Press about “The Room Next Door,” Almodóvar and he idea of letting people die on their own terms.Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.SWINTON: I felt really blessed by the opportunity.
So many of us have been in the situation Julianne Moore’s character finds herself in, being asked to be the witness of someone who is dying.Whether that wanting to orchestrate their own dismount or not, to be in that position to be a witness is something that I’ve been privileged to experience many times in my life since I was quite young.SWINTON: It’s a really beautiful poem to a possibility of an attitude.
I think (my character) Martha’s attitude to her own living is really inspiring.I would like to think that this is a really generous proposal and that it might inspire people to...