anderswolleck

In the movies Tilda Swinton comes off very angel-like and thats not a pun for Hellblazer fans. She seems very delicate with a strong touch of pathos though in person shes warm, sweet, very funny and all business. But I suppose when an actor has sheparded a passion project for five years like Swinton did with Thumbsucker you need to be that way sometimes.

Swinton plays Audrey Cobb a woman with two children and at the age of 17 her son, Justin, still sucks his thumb. She wonders how she could possibly be grownup with a son going to college. In her early 40s, she is, like Justin, struggling to find out who she is and to accept her shortcomings. As a mother she knows that she doesn't have all the answers to Justin's troubles, and that she is sometimes too busy dealing with her own doubts to help him. Audrey hides from these realities through an obsession with a TV heartthrob, Matt Schraam [Benjamin Bratt], whose TV character seems to have all the neat answers.

Check out the official site for Thumbsucker

Daniel Robert Epstein: [Thumbsucker] director Mike Mills said that you hung in the longest in the process of making this film, why did you do that?

Tilda Swinton: Because Mike Mills is amazing. Also it obvious to me that the film was going to happen and it was obvious that it was going to be as good as it is. It's been that way with other first time filmmakers that I've had the privilege to work with. Theyve had people telling them they were insane when they went to ask for money. I get a real kick out of saying I was right.

DRE: Did being a mother help you relate to your character?

TS: No, it's very different. I relate to Justin entirely. As a mother, I dont relate for a number of reasons. First of all, I don't have 17 year olds and I'm well aware of the fact that I don't know what I'm doing whereas she is fighting that. I have a clearer sense of chaos then she does. Also she had them very young and I had my children so old. I have the great luxury of being able to live several different lives at once whereas she is in that quite orthodox position of becoming a mother and putting aside her solitary, identifiable self as Audrey the person and look after their worlds. That kind of thing really kicks you in the ass eventually. One sees it time and time again. Obviously everyone does it to a certain extent but parents are really led up that path. I think that it's really hard to resist being consumed by one's mother identity and not keep in touch with one's individual self.

DRE: What were your duties as producer of Thumbsucker?

TS: It was very similar to what I've always been doing with these independent films. It's just that now we felt that because I'd been working on it for a while now my name should be on the front of it. My name has never been there before, but the work always has been. I've been looking at my address book and its fatter now than it ever was before. Also I have a few notches on my belt of impossible films that no one thought would be get made.

DRE: Certainly one of those films was Teknolust, which I loved.

TS: I love that one but these films always find their audience. Teknolust has its audience and it might even find a time in 20 years. I feel so clear about that. That's not just idealism, that's reality. I worked with Derek Jarman and we always made jokes when we were making films because he used to make films for not more than $200,000 and in the first five years it was way into profit. So it was very clear that the audience was there. What seems to be coming beautifully clear is that the "mainstream audience" is getting tired of being given such generic crap. That's great news for all of us because it means that people who are prepared to put more money into pictures will chose people who are into doing more complex visions.

DRE: Do you take roles in films like Constantine and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to add to your address book?

TS: No, that sounds like a really clever and very conscious way of thinking but I'm not that clever. I'm actually doing those things for exactly the same reasons as I'm doing everything else. The filmmakers come to me and we start up a conversation and they propose something that I just want to go on talking about. Then they sort of say, Well, come on and talk about it on the set. [Constantine director] Francis Lawrence is a phenomenal guy who I'd have done anything with but it happened to be a $150 million film with Keanu Reeves and Warner Bros rather than Mike Mills and however much we're telling everybody out there that Thumbsucker costs.

DRE: The character of Gabriel in Constantine and The White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe happen to be very complex characters. For these big pictures, if they wanted to make your characters less complex, would you still do them?

TS: No, I don't need to do those films. I have a really rich life and I have no career plan. In fact I have no career, I have a life. I have so much to occupy myself that I don't actually need to go and spend two months on a big Hollywood movie unless I'm having a fantastic conversation with the filmmakers. The question is, can I take myself with me? In the few instances I have been in big pictures I have been encouraged to take myself with me. Its amazing that Disney would put me in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when you think of everyone else they could have gotten. It's a bit of a joke and why not? It's literally no skin off of my nose and in fact it's fantastic information because I feel like a spy on these films. It explains a lot to me about how difficult it is to make those big films because it's about as different to the kind of filmmaking that I'm used to as plumbing and carpentry is to me. On big films chaos is really scary because there are 1500 people involved and both huge decisions and little decisions cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I liken big budget filmmaking to a big jigsaw being put together very slowly by very kind of old giants which doesn't mean that the picture isn't going to be great. It really might be but you can't see it while it's happening because there are huge pieces that they're loading in over your head and you just have to trust that it will go well. The kinetic energy of independent filmmaking is so different. It's so much more alive. It's unplugged.

DRE: Are you more comfortable in independent film?

TS: It's what I know. But I've enjoyed every one of my mad spying missions into the mothership. I've had a really great time but I worry about the money that they waste. It's so painful for me.

DRE: But the money they spend must be nice when it comes to mealtime.

TS: If you haven't got enough to do you start figuring out that the craft service budget for a week is the budget of a film that you've been trying to get off the ground for five years which drives you crazy. But money spent is not a problem. Money wasted is, and there's always going to be more wasted on these big things.

The point that I'm laboring is that if Andrew Adamson was an independent filmmaker making an independent film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I was asked to play the White Witch I would've done it. That's my point. I didn't do it because it's a huge film.

DRE: But you have to sign a lot of contracts.

TS: Yeah and that's where the spying comes in. That's where one has to really dig deep when you start to wonder if they've done a deal with McDonalds after you signed a contract.

DRE: Is there going to be a Tilda Swinton doll in the Happy Meal?

TS: I'm hoping not because I'm the epitome of all evil and one would hope that that would protect me from all of that. What would the white stuff be on the snow burger.

DRE: Aslan Burgers!

TS: Lion Burgers. I don't know what they're going to be able to do that, but lets just see them try.

DRE: Would you play The White Witch if they make The Magicians Nephew?

TS: Yeah, thats a tall order because it's all in Victorian London and would involve me kind of going around on the back of a coach and horse. I pick up a lamppost and throw it and create Narnia. It's fantastic.

DRE: Andrew Adamson is a kind of first time director as well.

TS: He's completely a first time director and probably the most powerful first time director in history. He has a $250 million dollar film as his first live action film.

DRE: I talked to David Mackenzie a few weeks ago, are you committed to playing Nico?

TS: I'm completely committed to playing Nico. We're doing it but I think he has to do something else in between. So don't hold your breath because it'll be a year or so away minimum.

DRE: David was saying five years.

TS: Really? Well, we had this very funny experience the other day when I was in Washington. I had just mentioned Nico to someone and as I was walking to the loo I thought, Uh oh. I never cleared it with David that I could talk about this. That's terrible. So I went to my hotel room and there was an email from David saying, I feel really bad because I'm on a press tour for Asylum and I never cleared with you whether or not you wanted me to say that you were going to be playing Nico. So we both decided to come out of the closet and stick a flag in the ground and say that we're going to do it.

DRE: What interested you about Nico?

TS: It's the aspect of the story that we're interested in showing. It's her very last tour and I think there's something really interesting about the has-been, never-was on a certain level. That dying fall of an artist's life who was really struggling particularly with the fact that she's a major junkie. It's also very funny as well.

DRE: Is it going to look back on her glory days at all?

TS: It will refer to them. But you should read the book its based on, its called Songs They Never Play on the Radio by James Young who was the keyboard player in her last band.

DRE: What else are you working on?

TS: I'm working with Bla Tarr, the Hungarian filmmaker, on a film called The Man from London. We tried to make the film in the spring and then for unavoidable circumstances we had to move it. So I hope that we're going to make that in the autumn.

DRE: Theres a lot of films on the IMDB that say you are in them.

TS: Apparently there are some complete red herrings there. There's a film called No One Gets Off in This Town on there. I've never heard of it. I don't know what it is. I'm waiting on the check is all I can say. So you can disregard that. There's another film called Three Bad Men which is also not happening. But someone did tell me some time ago that I was incredibly good in one of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. What I'm waiting for is someone to tell me how Im better than I ever was in a film I wasnt in. That would be awful, wouldn't it?

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck