USA: For her latest role as an alcoholic in "Julia," Oscar winner Tilda Swinton says she turned to friends for inspiration

Record ID: 386192

  • Title: USA: For her latest role as an alcoholic in "Julia," Oscar winner Tilda Swinton says she turned to friends for inspiration
  • Date: 8th May 2009
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS TILDA SWINTON SAYING: "When it came for me to do all the drunk acting, I said I don't know if I can do this. When I get drunk I either throw up or go to sleep. I said I don't know if I can stagger around being drunk. But once I started, I realized that I've actually been doing that for years because my friends are drunk and I pretend to be drunk, and then I'm the one who calls the cops, turns the music down and then drives everybody home. So pretending to be drunk is what I've been doing for years."
  • Embargoed: 23rd May 2009 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVACPZI7M9PN087SZ4PLSI27F87N
  • Story Text: British actress Tilda Swinton says drinking just makes her sleepy or sick, so when seeking inspiration to play a loud, hard-partying alcoholic in her latest film she turned to her friends.
    The self-confessed "art world freak," who won a best supporting actress Oscar last year for "Michael Clayton," plays a 40-year-old flamboyant, lying alcoholic in "Julia," which opens in some U.S. theaters on Friday.
    "I'm so aware very often when you see alcoholism in films, people tend to emphasize something that I don't really recognize in the alcoholics I know and love, which is a kind of loser quality," Swinton told Reuters in a recent interview.
    "I don't think of alcoholics as losers, particularly. Alcoholics tend to number the most energetic and fantastic people I know. So I was always thinking it would be nice to look at that kind of portrait," she said.
    The 48-year-old actress confessed that due to her own drinking experience - throwing up or going to sleep, she was concerned as to whether she could successfully "stagger around being drunk" in the film.
    "But once I started, I realized that I've actually been doing that for years because my friends are drunk and I pretend to be drunk," said Swinton, who lives in the Scottish Highlands with artist John Byrne and their 11-year-old boy and girl twins.
    The film directed by Erick Zonca, which premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, was released last year in Britain and some European countries. It follows Julia as she commits a crime after a chance encounter with a Mexican woman.
    Swinton's performance received strong reviews, with The Telegraph newspaper in London saying she was "unmissable," London's Metro newspaper that she gave a "powerhouse performance" and The Mirror newspaper said it was "truly unforgettable."
    Despite roles in Hollywood films including "Michael Clayton"
    and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, Swinton says independent films like "Julia" are where she feels most at home.
    "This constituency is where I live really. Me being in big Hollywood movies is such a recent development, that's not where I live, that's a tourist destination for me," said Swinton, who also appears in director Jim Jarmusch's "The Limits of Control," which opened in some U.S.
    theaters last week.
    She says winning an Academy Award has helped her career in independent films as the industry struggles amid the financial crisis.
    But there is one place you are unlikely to find Swinton any time soon -- the stage.
    "I'm not one of those performers who says the theater is my great love. It really isn't. I'm not really interested in the theater at all to be honest," she said. "I don't go to it. I find it really boring."
    "Julia" is now playing in North American theaters.
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