On Meeting Tilda Swinton

Sitting in the City Winery, anxious to see one of the true goddesses of the screen on stage for her New Yorker Festival interview, I was hypnotized by the screens to either side of the stage. Images streamed from a wordless Derek Jarman short Depuis le Jour (1987). Tilda Swinton's smiling face and long cascading red hair kept reappearing, as if we were being watched by the ghost of her youth. When the current familiar incarnation of Swinton walked on stage minutes later, blond and androgynous, the flickering images were gone but the youthful actress remained.

She was still wordless, too. Swinton's mic wasn't working... but the technical snafu proved welcome. There was slightly more time to acclimate oneself to her ageless presence in the flesh.

Swinton is now a 48-year-old Oscar winner (for Michael Clayton), bonafide celebrity, and fashion icon for her eerie and singular beauty (who is often cited, hilariously, on the site Go Fug Yourself), but she has clearly never lost touch with the roots of her art, or "work," as she often calls it. She first gained attention as Jarman's muse in experimental films like The Last of England (1988) and Edward II (1991). The filmmaker's name was invoked often and she left no doubt that the whole course of her life was altered by this collaboration.

"My introduction to the world of art was through this community vibe. So family and work, family and art—which is my work—mean absolutely the same thing." She recalled, revelling in Jarman's experimental process: "We made a film and it was completely hypnotic for all of us. Some of us signed on for life."

In this revealing evening, Swinton talked a lot about these early years and the various identities she tried on and discarded: writer who quit writing, stage actor who didn't want to be on stage, and film actor who nearly quit acting after fame hit with the worldwide success of Sally Potter's Orlando (1992). "When you make work that takes a long time to make it’s so often such a painful thing, because the piece at the end is such a total waste of time because it can’t possibly live up to five years of dream. I hated it so much. To me it was the trailer of the 24-hour epic in my mind."



Many diehard Swinton fans recognize her as a kindred spirit. Tilda mentions her movie love often (this year she held a film festival in her native Scotland). Why didn't she take to stage acting where she began? "It’s more to do with being a crazed film fan, really. Of wanting that experience. I’m much more interested in the crucible of being in the cinema. It’s as much to do with being in the audience as being on the screen."

While it shouldn't come as a surprise that this mesmerizing actress still has the capacity to surprise—check out her recent, triumphantly-against-type work in Julia (2008)—it was a minor shock to hear her hesitancy to equate herself with "real actors."

"The frame is all important to me—what else is in the frame with me? Is that vase going to be my left. Is that tree going to be in the shot? It’s not even about something as complicated as the working of a character. It’s about the frame. I realize I am an artist's model. And funnily enough my first film was Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio, playing an artist's model... I kind of feel more comfortable describing myself as set decoration," she confessed.

"Maybe glorified set decoration..." the goddess amended, looking out at the crowd and finally acknowledging her gift. After 25 years of hypnotic performances, she must know that it's treasured.

Tilda Swinton's next role will be as an Italian matriarch in the film I Am Love (lo sono l'amore), which will be released by Magnolia Films.