Here are some photos of a quiet little LA premiere/screening a few days ago for Only Lovers Left Alive. Her ensemble is Valentino, and it looks like a variation on that hideous thing Cate Blanchett wore just before the Oscars. Anyway, the good news is that Tilda is in full-on promotional mode for OLLA, and she gave a lengthy interview to The Daily Beast. I don’t want to oversell this or anything, but this is probably going to be the best thing you read all week (if not all month). You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:
Her “timeless look”: “It’s called “no-mascara.” That’s it! But I’m actually only semi-joking about no-mascara. I look like people in old paintings. I look more like people in old paintings than I do people in films. I suppose that’s always been my way onto screens—through people looking for images from old paintings.”
Why women are attracted to tortured artists: “I don’t know if women are attracted to the tortured artist but if they are, maybe it’s the foreignness, and that feeling of foreignness is good for a relationship, and positive, and something that we need to un-demonize. Just “other.” But I think that’s also the same for same-sex relationships, it’s not just for men and women. In a companionship, it’s really a wonderful thing when people bring different things, and it’s so great to see someone stand back from their sweetheart and say, “Wow, you’re so different from me and I think you’re really cool.”
Holding the rainbow (gay rights) flag in Russia: “Well, Russia has the gayest president ever. No, that’s an offensive thing to say—not to him, but to the gay community.”
Whether she Skypes with her lover: “For my sweetheart? Never. My children? Yes, unfortunately. But I travel with my band. I travel with my sweetheart permanently, and I’m never away from my children longer than 10 days, and I Skype with them every day. I’m not a solo artist. I rock with a band.”
Whether love could last centuries: “I don’t see why not. There’s no statute of limitations. It’s interesting that you’d say that because I don’t think that’s romantic, I think that’s practical. That’s an actual fact. What I think the film takes issue with is the modern romantic notion about oneness—that you get together, you’re exactly the same as each other, you like doing the same things, and if there’s anything that doesn’t square with your united front, you’re just not going to do it. This film is really about what seems to be a fairly radical notion, which is that you don’t have to be like somebody to love them, and you can really love someone who’s very different to you, and who might even be antagonistic to you, and you can properly be there companion without trying to f–k with them or edit them in any way.”
On whether Leo DiCaprio should win an Oscar: “I wouldn’t know! I don’t know who’s won what. I have no idea. I didn’t watch the Oscars. I don’t even have a television. I’m not even sure the Oscars is shown in the U.K. Is it?”
Her favorite movies of 2013: “Actually, The Wolf of Wall Street was pretty much my favorite movie of the past year, but I didn’t see them all. I thought it was a major, major masterpiece, and so inspiring to see Scorsese making a film like that at this point in his work.”
Appearing in David Bowie’s music video for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”: “The moment happens when the phone rings and it’s someone who calls themself David Bowie, and you never stop pinching yourself. It was the easiest thing in the world. I was talking recently with a friend of mine who’s determined to never meet her heroes, and I have another friend who’s been horribly disillusioned a couple of times. But I’ve had a wonderful ride with meeting people who have been my North Stars, and Bowie’s definitely one of them. He feels like my cousin; like the cousin I never had.”
I tend to think Queen Tilda gets a bad rap for being artsy and “deep” and intellectual. I mean, she’s all of those things but she’s never really Franco about it. She just IS and she’s usually very upbeat, kind and open. And yes, David Bowie and Tilda could be related. And yes, Vladimir Putin is totally gay. Bless her.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Very good actress but her looks scares me.
Ha, love it! She’s the one person on my list of “People I’d Like to Meet” that I think would live up to the awesome-ness that’s expected.
Ok I love her too, but Terry Richardson was invited to Tilda’s 53rd birthday party at MOMA.
….anybody care?
Those who are hand-wringing on the Lupita post need to stay consistent.
Ugh. There are days that I cannot stomach the hypocrisy of celeb gossip. I love Celebitchy to death but the way people pick and choose just drives me nuts sometimes.
TOK: Your comments are always my favorite, no matter what the subject.
See I didn’t know that cause I didn’t pay attention, but in that case they ALL need to stay away from Terry. You know what’s funny though (not really funny) but I hold it against the women more than I do the men. I fully admit to being a hypocrite when it comes to HW, and I should probably work on it.
I agree, though it am influenced somewhat by my affection or respect for people, so I am guilty, too. Everyone is excusing her Putin is gay comment, too, and I don’t think they would if someone else had said it. She basically used gay as an insult, just like Alec Baldwin, though she corrected herself immediately. She still said it.
Btw, Kitten, I click your name at least once a day to see your babies. They make me smile.
Well, she signed her name on that petition to get Roman Polanksi back into the United States, so her being friends with TR doesn’t really surprise me, unfortunately.
I still reallyl like her, I just wish she had better taste in friends.
Well it’s because of commenters like you guys that I keep coming back 🙂
I agree Goodnames. And I love Swinton but the way she used the word gay here isn’t ok with me.
Also, keep clicking! I’m going to add more photos this weekend! 😀
TOK
I don’t care! I love Tilda. She’s proven herself time and time again to be her own person and no one can manipulate her. And with Terry and Tilda I think he wants to be round her more than she wants to be around him.
Lupita can do this too. Will take some time, but it’s possible. Jared Leto doesn’t help her case much though.
I didn’t know, tbh. Terry is omnipresent. 😛 Same for Polanski and Woody Allen.
I get that Tilda wants to ruffle Putin’s feathers by using a description he would find most insulting, but I hate to saddle the gays with a corrupt, murderous bastard like Putin. Can we just say he’s trying to over compensate for small penis or something?
She’s got a few black marks on that count. She also signed the Polanski petition. I otherwise love her, but she’s associated with some really repugnant people.
I think it is only hypocrisy if people have “absolutes” (like if they say they would never support anyone who yada yada yada) .
I think that a person’s character isn’t determined by ONE thing alone…it is the overall sum of a series of choices. I would never hold it against someone (celeb or not) if they did a few things I disagreed with. I think it makes sense to start drawing lines only after a clear pattern of behavior has emerged. Like Lohan or Beiber.
Tilda seems to be overall an intelligent and entertaining person, even if she is friends with a couple people I strongly disagree with.
I love cats but I’m allergic to them
been a fan of Tilda’s since Orlando. I would like to see her and Grace Jones do some sort of artsy project together
“I don’t even have a television.”
To quote Joey in Friends
“what’s all the furniture in your living room pointed at?!”
Oh wow, I did not know you went inside her house…how does it look like?
Furniture used to be arranged in a circle so that people could actually talk to each other.
Ha! I got it, Lindy. Funny! I miss that show!
Yes Putin is probably one of the happiest presidents around…..very powerful man who doesn’t take PC BS.
Whether that’s a good thing or a very bad thing (dictator) doesn’t really matter to him or to his people – better approval rating than Obama.
+100000000000000
So…you’re saying that all is well because he has a high approval rating, including a law that criminalizes who someone is? And opposition to putting people in jail for their sexuality is PC BS? Interesting perspective.
It seems to be a perspective held by some conservatives these days. I’ll take President Obama anyday, mom jeans and all.
Scary perspective. I doubt that Putin’s approval rating is very high in the US or Europe.
I am not sure what her point was but just want to point out that shes right about Putins ratings on this issue in Russia. And no its not that his country is filled with homophobes, its because the way the West has expressed (hypocritical) outrage has turned this into a matter of national sovereignty. Suddenly, people who could otherwise have been gay allies are forced into making a patriotic stand against Western cultural imperialism. The same goes for Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.
There was a great blog by a member of SMUG (a Ugandan gay association now illegal) where the guy just pleaded with Western “do gooders” like this actress to just shut up. You are making it worse not better with the sermonizing. If you want to really help, send cash to grass roots movements on the ground. Facillitate the local people to learn about homosexuality and debunk the myths. THATS how you can help. Everything else is just viewed as offensive Western paternalism.
Mercy wrote, “It seems to be a perspective held by some conservatives these days”
I am not a conservative, but to be fair, they aren’t trying to jail people for being homosexual. They are trying to limit the rights and benefits that homosexuals receive. Still not a good thing, but it is MUCH less severe than what they are doing in Russia.
Oh, right, Rainbows, What a shame all of those brave, enlightened, pro-gay rights Russians are forced now to pretend they’re narrow minded bigots just like Putin because we evil Westerners dared to speak. You just keep on believing that. How nice, how easy it must be to never have to take responsibility for your own actions, beliefs and lack of guts. Because everything is somebody else’s fault, usually ours. I guess that’s why so many evil Westerners are crowding into Moscow because Russia is just such a fabulous country to live in…oh wait…they’re not, it’s the other way around. I guess they want to see that paternalism up close.
It kind of makes you wonder how much you can trust the polls from the Russian public, though. When someone is capable of poisoning someone with polonium (Alexander Litvinenko), I would imagine that would have an effect on whether or not citizens express their disapproval publicly.
Lord is she cool!!!!!
Meh, she never really did anything for me. And she lost me at “Wolf of Wall Street is a masterpiece” She has a beautiful face and is that outfit the same as Cate Blanchett’s or just the same designer?
It’s a different outfit, but has to be the same designer, right? It’s the same fabric and fringe technique (macrame?). Surely two separate people couldn’t come up with this nightmare individually.
LOL. I agree it’s a nightmare, but I think it works for both actresses really. I mean the event that Blanchett was at (honoring costume makers right?) made it appropriate. And Tilda can pull this off because she usually wears the offbeat, different stuff.
Yes, they are probably the only two people on earth who could pull it off, I agree.
i love her!!!!
I find this really out of line.
Using “He’s gay” in order to insult a homophobic person makes being gay something negative.
The gay community doesn’t want him. He has no place being gay. Gay is not just an adjective.
She did immediately acknowledge that that is offensive to gay people. What I heard from her comment is that sometimes super-homophobic people are deeply closeted, and deeply conflicted about their own desires. Ironic, really. We’ve seen it play out with “family-values” anti-gay ministers who are caught in secret gay relationships.
I admit I did a drive-by comment.
The bait title got me, lol.
Still, even if she pulled a “They Don’t deserve it”, it still plays on the “homophobic people are latent homos”.
No sometimes they are just homophobic dumbasses.
I felt this way when I saw the headline and was alarmed. Her complete statement made it a bit better. Agreed, the gay community does not want this imbecile. Her support for gays and lesbians in Russia is noticed and appreciated.
I guess it depends on who says it. There would be OUTRAGE if this comment was made by someone hated by people on the site, such as Anne Hathaway or Beyonce. People love and admire Tilda though, so apparently there’s no problem with what she said.
EDIT: This is in response to Jimblob
Yeah, that was my first reaction. I understand she’s playing on his homophobia and it doesn’t reflect her own beliefs about gay people, but there has to be a better way to insult him. I’d rather just call him a homophobe and bully, among other things.
I agree, I think using it as an insult is not good, but at the same time….I think she used it because that is the insult that gets the most outrage by those men focused on machismo. Thinking of Putin and his silly topless photos and bear hunting, I feel like he is the exact type to blow a gasket if someone challenges his masculinity.
If someone tries THAT HARD to present a manly picture, they must be VERY INSECURE about their masculinity. So that is where she attacked him.
I still don’t agree with it, though.
Love her comments about the nature of love. Never understood the fascination with ‘matching couples’, some of my closest friends have been the ones with completely different interests and opinions from my own, but because we love and respect one another we get along brilliantly anyway – or maybe even because of that, I’ve had a lot of interesting and thoughtful discussions that way. A very under appreciated form of love sometimes.
I can never decide if I like her or not. Can’t decided whether she’s really genuine or not. Love her acting – she has done some brilliant stuff. Hate that she supported Polanski.
In this interview I was with her until she called Wolf of Wall Street a masterpiece. I’m sorry but what exactly is so special about the shallow representation of the orgiastic, debauched, drug-riddled life-style of a bottom-feeder. To me at least, the movie came across as a celebration of the morally bankrupt rich people, rather than a critique.
Agree so much here. Wolf of Wall Street was boring, disgusting just for the sake of being disgusting and I felt actually glorified Jordan Belfort. Below Scorsese standards and had no place at the Academy Awards. Leo’s nom included.
I didn’t love the movie (at least 1/3 of it should have been cut)…but it held up a VERY powerful mirror. If we are outraged by the behavior, if we are outraged by the idea of a “Club Fed” for those that committ such crimes, why don’t we DO something about it?
More upholstery material.
And Putin does give off a rough trade vibe with all the shirtless thug posing………
Completely agree that she just IS, whereas Franco is so desperate to tell everyone what a great artiste he is, that he doesn’t actually produce anything worthwhile.
Loved her in Orlando.
I’ve always kinda liked her but this interview strikes me as a little too pretentious, really rubbed me the wrong way by the end.
I do like her unique look, that’s cool, although in these photos I don’t like how matchy-matchy her hair color is with her ensemble.
Did u guys ever see her in that movie We need to talk about Kevin, it was a really interesting movie and she was very good in it, her body language is amazing u can just feel her anguish in that movie.
I saw it, and it lingered with me for days after it. It was a really good, but frightening movie.
She was extraordinary in that movie. Felt every little thing she felt.
That movie was OFF THE CHARTS.
Swinton’s performance was haunting.
Another movie where she blew my mind was this movie called “Julia”.
I highly HIGHLY recommend it.
Yes, she was amazing in that, deserved every award. It was a crazy film, based on an even crazier book.
I was just reading through the comments and wanted to add I recently saw “We Need to Talk About Kevin”. Awesome movie, it’s playing on Cable this month.
Tilda for President! How can one not love her? She’s so amazing!
I will forever love Tilda and I love this interview, and now she makes me wish deeply that I didn’t find OLLA to be so superficial. It’s ambition was right up my alley, and I love everything it set out to do– I just don’t think the script was equal to its vision. The music was the real star of the show. But I love what she says. Eh, I’ll see it again, and I am a total Sqürl fan now.
Tilda, if only you had never signed that effing Polanski petition…..
Oh boy, Tilda is going to mysteriously disappear after these comments about Putin. Enjoy her now people. I don’t trust Putin at all.
I do like how she immediately clarified her usage of the word gay in that statement.
I mean I’m not saying she should start checking for polonium in her tea BUT…
Yeah, I was thinking “watch out England!”
I like her because she’s quirky and offbeat (and she gets mad props for having that young boyfriend), but that dress is not a good look.
considering that she played a long-lived vampire,
i won’t be surprised that Maria von Trapp learned how to make clothes out of curtains from Tilda. a time traveling Tilda.
and certainly in the past, no one was around to tell Maria that she should be wary of time traveling strangers opening a conversation with “Hey you know what, in the future, there will be entire fashion shows dedicated to window hanging inspired clothes”
after Peter Capaldi, can TIlda be the next Doctor?
@Deb…
What an awesome idea! Tilda as the Doctor!
What did she mean when she said VP is gay? That comment sort of threw me. I don’t know much about Tilda besides what I’ve gleaned from this site, honestly. Her appearance fascinates me but this is the first post I’ve read in which she’s ever come across as somewhat… Normal. Relatable.
I posted something similar above. I think she used it because that is the insult that gets the most outrage by those men focused on machismo. Thinking of Putin and his silly topless photos and bear hunting, I feel like he is the exact type to blow a gasket if someone challenges his masculinity.
If someone tries THAT HARD to present a manly picture, they must be VERY INSECURE about their masculinity. So that is where she attacked him.
I wouldn’t have made that comment, but I see why she did it.
There is a brief nude seen of her in Orlando…holy cow, she looks straight from a painting head to toe.
Love Tilda. That is all.