Pedro Almodóvar is back with his first English-language film, “The Room Next Door,” which just took the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and is now making the rounds at the Toronto International Film Festival where TheWrap caught up with star Tilda Swinton.
Based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel “What Are You Going Through,” the film stars Swinton as Martha, a war correspondent and flawed mother who is nearing the end of her life. She is attempting to mend fences with her daughter and Martha’s friend, author Ingrid (Julianne Moore).
At TIFF, Swinton (who also appears in Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End,” which is making the festival rounds as well) told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman that it wasn’t a stretch to play Martha, drawing from her own personal experiences.
“It feels really delicious to fold into a story that’s actually in our lives anyway. I mean, it’s no effort, in a way, to be this honest. I’m blessed to be able to say this, I’ve been in the position that that Julianne’s character is in quite often in my life,” Swinton explained. “I’ve been in the Ingrid position quite a lot, and from when I was very young, my friend Derek Jarman, I would say, was my Martha. He was the first person that I witnessed at this sort of juncture in his life.” Jarman was a British filmmaker and artist who worked with Swinton. In 1986 he was diagnosed HIV positive and died in 1994 at the age of 53.
The actress said that the connection to Jarman only made itself known recently. “It only occurred to me a couple of days ago. I hadn’t realized when we were shooting the film that I was drawing on the example of particularly my friend Derek Jarman, who, as I say, was the first person who asked me to be his Ingrid.”
Swinton continued: “But this is a particular story, because Martha is someone who’s very clear that she hasn’t got that long and she’s really going towards something very, very agonizing, and she decides to be self-determined to the end. She knows she doesn’t want to do it alone. She asks her old friend to be in the room next door, to be her witness.”
Watch the entire interview above.
“The Room Next Door” opens on Dec. 20 in New York City and Los Angeles, followed by a limited release in more cities on Christmas Day and a wide release in January 2025.
