Actress Tilda Swinton – who was educated in Kent – has spoken about working with movie hunk George Clooney for her latest role and how she enjoys sharing make-up space with him first thing in the morning.
The pair star in the new work from cult directors and producers, Joel and Ethan Coen, called Burn After Reading.
Once again, Swinton plays a less-than-sympathetic character, something she is getting used to.
She said her character was: “Basil Fawlty with Mrs Krabappel from The Simpsons’ hairdo – and she is just so damned disappointed with pretty much everything.
“I love this galaxy of humourless people I have been playing recently. I really, really enjoy it. It’s like a secret revenge of mine against people I have met in my life. But this one I have a particular relish with.”
In the film, which also stars Brad Pitt, she plays a disillusioned wife who gets involved with Clooney.
Swinton, 47, born Katherine Matilda Swinton in London, was educated at the exclusive West Heath Girls School in Sevenoaks, alongside Princess Diana.
She won the best supporting actress Oscar and a Bafta playing a hard-nosed corporate lawyer in the Clooney movie Michael Clayton, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role.
She was also in The Narnia Chronicles: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and, briefly, its sequel Prince Caspian.
When asked if Clooney was her lucky charm, Swinton said: “Oh Lord, don’t tell him that. His head will swell.
“He is a very good person to see in the morning in the make-up trailer, I can tell you. It’s nice working with him.”
She said she was very keen to work with the Coen brothers, who were behind cult hits No Country for Old Men, Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Clooney starred in their offbeat comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Swinton, who now lives in Scotland, said: “The Coens could have handed me a telephone directory and I would have been perfectly happy to play the Js or something.
“There is something about the way they write characters, the small gestures and the way people choose what they say to each other which makes it really live, and I would defy anybody to make a bad film out of that script.”
POSTED: 06/09/2008 12:00:00
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