Tilda Swinton gleans inspiration from many places: Bowie, her father, Raf Simons, Ivanka Trump. Okay, one of these things is not like the others. In a recent conversation with The Wrap, the otherworldly star broke down her latest character in Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming Netflix film Okja.
The film follows a young girl as she tries to rescue her animal friend from becoming the next big culinary fad. Describing her as “heir to a rotten great fortune built on the corrupt and morally repugnant initiatives carried out by her father” Swinton explains she’s driven by “a combination of impassioned narcissism and a competitive determination to do things differently, she is dedicated to fashioning a gleaming public image.” While she understands that her father’s business, The Mirando Corporation, is “the most hated agrochemical company on the planet” she chooses to sidestep her own sense of what’s right to manage their reputation, manipulating it into “an eco-conscious and world-saving beacon of positivity.”
Referring to the character’s appearance she continues, “She needed to be a construct, very painstakingly planned to be everything that—particularly—dominant American culture loves to be ruled by: flaxen, straight-haired, straight-toothed, vivacious, childlike in energy.”
By now, the comparisons were becoming stingingly clear, and the interviewer directly asks her if she drew from Ivanka for the role. Tilda doesn’t hesitate, remembering: “When we shot in New York last summer, I stood watching the Republican convention on the television in our lunch break dressed as Lucy, watching a different daughter of a different dubious dynasty addressing, from a high podium, a big crowd with glossy blond hair, expensive orthodontics and modelling her Barbie-perfect modest pink dress (concurrently on sale online). Chicken? Egg?”
Credits
Text Wendy Syfret
Screengrab via YouTube