I’m not really interested in acting. […] I don’t want there to be films. It’s not like I’m looking for opportunities to do things. …I would like an opportunity to have a good sleep and get on with some writing.
—The enigmatic, somewhat-otherworldly Tilda Swinton, on how she totally plans to quit acting, you know, one of these days.
Anybody else, Tilda. If anybody else talked like this—anybody else—my eyes would roll so hard, they would roll right out of my head and down the stairs and out into the street and then steal a car and drive away. But on you, Tilda, this sort of thing is kind of completely charming.
Really, this quote isn’t as bratty as it looks. Because when Tilda says that she keeps getting sucked into “schemes” and “basically it’s gone on for 20 years but I’m hoping to pull it to a close shortly,” I feel like she shows her hand. She’s being—well, not facetious, exactly. Maybe it’s more like, acting is this terrible codependent relationship Tilda Swinton knows she’ll never leave, and her wry little threat to ditch filmmaking is Tilda’s way of being cute.
P.S. Today is Tilda’s 51st birthday. Happy birthday!
I love her so much.
And how.