Tilda Androgyne
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 6:39PM Tilda Swinton is on the cover of W's August issue with a mess of hot photos inside. And by hot I mean cool and by cool I mean sickening or whatever word is the new aspirational one to indicate people who are better than us.
Tilda is very tall but she's that much higher because we're always placing her on pedestals. But just look at her! Who can be blamed for building said pedestals, altars or shrines.
This next photo totally screams Victor/Victoria. I doubt Tilda could sing as well as Julie Andrews (but then, who could?) so maybe they should reinterpret it as a minimalist art film.
In addition to playing the woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman entertainer at the center, Tilda could play every role? I will now spend the next seventeen hours imagining Tilda in the Lesley Ann Warren / Norma Cassidy role. In fact, let's repurpose one of Norma's grandest quotes to speak of Tilda right now.
With you it's like 'Pow!Pow!Pow!' like the Fourth of July, every time!
Well it is with Tilda! You never have to fake it with her. She's orgasmic.
More photos after the jump...
I'm always surprised when actors confess to not being very aware of the Oscars but Tilda did come up through the very non-mainstream Derek Jarman world -- I still remember the first time I laid eyes on her (Edward II) -- so we'll take her word for it. Here's that bit from the interview.
W: Your last three leading roles [Julia, I Am Love, We Need To Talk About Kevin] have all detailed the complications of motherhood. Was this troika intentional?
TILDA: Absolutely. I call them my mother-lode trilogy—we’re working toward a boxed set [Laughs]. These movies are documentaries of a sort, where complication is the name of the game. They were all parts that I grew.
Grew?
I don’t get parts, I grow parts. All three of those movies took years to finance and create. A “Hollywood” movie like Michael Clayton is a holiday for me.You won an Oscar for that holiday!
Yes, that was lovely, but I have to admit that I’d never seen the Oscars on television and really had no idea that it was so important. It was a very long show, but it did move me up from the children’s table, professionally, in Hollywood.
Oscars (00s), Tilda Swinton, Victor/Victoria, magazines
Reader Comments (13)
Oh Tilda, she's a goddess. An alien goddess. I finished reading "We Need to Talk About Kevin" this Monday and I cried like a child. What a powerful story! I'm looking forward to watching the translation into the big screen. Although, as much as I'm sure the film will be very well done and Tilda will be terrific, I doubt the film can be the same tour de force that is the book.
Thanks for sharing this interview and photos! The images are very evocative.
I wouldn't be surprised if one day a tabloid ran the headline, "Tilda Swinton Is an Alien!" She fits all the criteria. Ageless? Check. Elongated limbs? Check. Preternaturally alabaster skin? Check. Bald, with occasional use of Gigolo Joe wig? Check. And I'm sure deep-green blood courses in her veins: where else would she get the eerie pigment for her eyes?
Personally I'm still recovering from her devastatingly beautiful performance in "I Am Love." My only qualm about fashion spreads like this one is that they probably feed into whatever reluctance the Academy is having about honoring her again.
On Thursday of last week I went out of the office for lunch and took only $11.00 in cash to buy my lunch. Next door to the restaurant where I ordered my lunch for pick up there’s a news stand and this issue was there. I ended up not picking up my order and bought this W for $5.50 and ended up eating a $4.00 6’ Subway sammy which tasted delicious because I was in the company of Tilda.
I always feel it important to mention that this woman is 50 years old. Amazing. I also love how we (collectively) are more outraged at her annual Oscar snubbing than she is. No wonder she handed the Oscar to that homeless man without pause: she acts because of the acting and not the acclaim. Love her.
Cristhian -- MY FAVORITE STORY TODAY. thank you.
Saw this a few days ago. I've gone through the pictures an absurd amount of times; weird and mesmerizing, just like the lady herself.
Loved her since the first time I saw her in 'Orlando.'
I'm a bit obsessed with her as well. she's just so unique in a wonderful way. I love the way she speaks. her choice of words. her fashion choices. any interview with her is always lovely with smart words and funny remarks. It seems like the whole Micheal Clayton thing was just a career award and the Academy feels that was enough. I mean only a so many actresses ever get to be Oscar Winners! at least the Academy feels she deserved that like so many of us do. Although I must confess before Micheal Clayton I didn't know who the hell she was. I remember that year when Tilda and Marion one I was like woah! who? and now we're all in love with both of them thanks to the Academy for recognizing their greatness so we could all enjoy them more! (especially those of us in the U.S who are almost unworthy of such great talent (;
I meant to link to these photos days ago and dropped the ball. It's like every two years she does a fashion spread (like the one for An Other a while back) that shows all the models of the world how much totally fiercer she is than they are, while still being completely brilliant in all her other ways, too. How is it possible that she exists among us?
Thank you. So many believe it was throwing a bone to Michael Clayton, but I knew Clayton was the only film Swinton's been in where they were able to watch and enjoy, and in the end reward.
I hope Swinton and (Julie) Taymor collaborate soon; as well, as her joining forces Tarsem Singh.
It would be one thing if she's was just this amazingly strange looking actress with a crazy brilliant fashion sense who just wanders about. But the woman can ACT. CIRCLES.
I'd love to see her work with Jane Campion, Andrea Arnold and onscreen with Cate Blanchett if we're going there, /3rtfu11.
In short, I'm glad she's in the world. Praise be to Saint Tilda!
Heh. I ask myself this all the time. And the pedestal grows ever taller.
I saw this on Go Fug Yourself a few days back, where they have all the spread's photos, and more commenters than I ever saw for a single post on that site singing her praises and worshipping her, as it should be.
Yet when I first saw the spread at that site I couldn't help giggling at the pretentiousness and pseudo-seriousness of it all (a clear plastic facemask? Tilda as a high-fashion future-world spy? As a Buddist monl?) - and I'd like to think that's part of the point, that there is meant to be a sense of humor here, almost a parody of ordinary fashion spreads. (We've all seen the Oscar acceptance speech, so we know she has a great sense of humor.) It's that and the discomfort that make the thing interesting here.