There is a moment in just about every workday when we come across something sexy, gratuitous and completely pointless that we wish we could post but don't under the auspices of there being nothing lesbian about it and often there being no redeeming value. Well, we at SheWired have made an executive decision to just throw any of our pseudo-feminist caution to the wind and to just post our favorite shot of the day, whether it be sexy, salacious, or just because...
While her acting is majorly celebrated, Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton’s unique looks and style set her apart from any “Hollywood” actress as much as her daring choice of roles.
Swinton shows off her ethereal porcelain skin and sculpted features in a stunning cover shoot for the latest issue of W Magazine for which she channels Quentin Crisp and David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth. Inside the pages, the actress talks about her unique body of work, and gives two separate interviews.
One of the interviews, in which Swinton talks to Diane Solway about her style secrets, points out Swinton’s special status among fashionistas. In a world of endless Maxim babes and ‘America’s Sweethearts,’ Swinton is that rare original thinker:
“Alien,” “chameleon,” and “androgynous” are the words most often applied to the five-foot-eleven actress, but perhaps only because the notions of beauty she subscribes to are wholly her own. “I follow my nose,” she says. “It’s as simple as that.”
In the second chat, with Lynn Hirschberg about We Need to Talk About Kevin, her most controversial film yet, Swinton expands on her motives for selecting roles that explore a side of women rarely caught on film.
Lynn Hirschberg: Your latest film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which you play the mother of a violent, disturbed boy, is one of the most emotionally unsettling movies I have ever seen. Halfway through the film, sometime around the moment when it became apparent that this kid was going to methodically destroy everything around him, I wanted to run. But I was glued to the screen—mostly because your character, who is troubled, quietly enraged, and often unsympathetic, was riveting. In films, mothers are mostly characterized by their love and affection for their children. It takes courage to challenge the sainted idea of maternal perfection. Did that scare you?
Tilda Swinton: I don’t think I’m courageous. One man’s courage is another man’s comfort zone. The movie, which is based on a novel by Lionel Shriver, explored a taboo subject: the idea of a less than perfect mother. I knew that, when an audience watched the film, there would be a gag reflex at some point. But I was fascinated by the subject—it scared me, and that interested me.
When we were trying to finance this movie, we would reference Rosemary’s Baby. It’s every pregnant woman’s nightmare to give birth to the devil. And every mother worries that she won’t connect to her children. When I had my children, my manager asked me what project I wanted to work on next. I said, “Something Greek, perhaps Medea.” Nobody quite understood what I meant, what I was feeling.
Photographs by Tim Walker
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