Tilda Swinton on portraying a life's end in "The Room Next Door"
"I've spent quite a lot of my life over the last 15 years in the really honored, privileged position of being close to people who are reaching the end of their lives," said actress Tilda Swinton."And then to make a film about it is a blessing on a blessing, really."Drawing on those experiences helped Swinton earn an acting nomination for Sunday's Golden Globes.
In "The Room Next Door," she portrays a woman with a terminal cancer diagnosis.Her character, Martha, faces questions about how to live.
"My first 'Martha,' if you like, was Derek Jarman," she said.The director, artist and gay activist (who cast Swinton in her first film, "Caravaggio"), was diagnosed with HIV in 1986.
The Oscar-winner credits Jarman with finding her a home in cinema, and showing her how collaborative filmmaking could be.They made seven feature films together before his death, in 1994.
She said, "He modeled a kind of attitude to his dismount that I drew on, like, to my core, for myself, and in fact I have reflected in the portrait of Martha."I asked, "You think about specific people as you're acting?" "Well, an attitude, yeah, that I've seen played out, that I've witnessed – my parents, my children's beloved father, John Byrne, who died last year," she replied."It's been such a privilege to be in that hot seat beside them and seeing them face the inevitable with such dignity and humor and wit, and just power.""The Room Next Door" is the first English-language feature film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.
Swinton's co-star, Julianne Moore, is another Academy Award-winner."He asked me who I wanted," said Swinton.
"It was her face that I saw at the end of the bed.It was her listening face that I felt was the right face."To watch a trailer for "The Room Next Door" click on the video player below: Swinton has made more than 80 films, winning an Oscar for the 2007 "Michael Clayton." Still, she says the big studio productions are the exception.
She veers toward independent f...