The most uncomfortable role of Tilda Swinton’s career: “I wasn’t very physically well”
Tilda Swinton is an actor defined by her refusal to be defined. A favourite of Wes Anderson, she has appeared in five of his films, yet she’s equally known to a generation of children as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Her arthouse credentials, showcased in projects like Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, are offset by her role as The Ancient One in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In short, if you think you know Swinton, think again.
One of the London-born star’s more obtuse projects is 2008’s Julia. Directed by Erick Zonca, the film is a loose retelling of the classic John Cassavetes movie Gloria, with Swinton in the role that Gena Rowlands had previously occupied. She plays the title character who, after meeting a woman at an AA session, joins her in a plot to kidnap her son from his grandfather.
Zonca, a French director who had previously made the Palme d’Or-nominated film La Vie rêvée des anges, is notorious for requiring multiple takes of every scene. When asked about this by Movieline, Swinton acknowledged that this approach had taken a toll on her. “The whole film was physically grueling for me for a couple of reasons,” she explained.
Adding: “Firstly because we had our budget cut before we started shooting, so we had to shoot faster, longer, and with less days off than would have been comfortable. I imagine even if you’re shooting a romantic love story, that would be grueling.”
“The other reason for me, personally, is that I was physically uncomfortable for most of the time,” she continued. “In order to be Julia, I had to build a body that was uncomfortable to live inside. I had to throw myself around a lot. I had to chain smoke. And I wasn’t physically very well through all of that. The work, though – the actual playing of it – was pretty graceful. I didn’t feel that that was grueling. We set ourselves a very high bar in the sense that Zonca always would set himself a very high bar. Which is part of the reason I wanted to work with him, and still want to work with him. He is not interested in something being fake. And neither am I.”
The character of Julia is a hard-partying, reckless individual with no concern for her own wellbeing. Combine this with the physicality of the story, which involves, among other things, a car chase between the kidnappers and the police, and you begin to see why Swinton was so out of sorts during the process.
Swinton was asked if she thought this type of movie wouldn’t have gotten made without her name attached. “I don’t think that’s true, to be honest with you,” she replied. “I think in France – it’s made with French money – Erick Zonca is a power. So I don’t think that’s true.” She reiterated that Julia had been shot before she won the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Oscar for Michael Clayton, though she admitted to hoping that “the prizes will help from now on. I don’t know. I hope so, because they’ve got to be good for something.”
