Tilda Swinton Discusses ‘Snowpiercer’ and Visually Dynamic Characters

Tilda Swinton Talks Snowpiercer
Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton in Snowpiercer (Photo Courtesy of Radius TWC)

Snowpiercer, based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige, is set in a world in which our planet has been plunged into a new ice age following a failed global-warming experiment, with the few survivors that exist confined to a train. Co-written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, the film stars Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as a leader of the lower class of survivors who lives at the back of the train which is separated by classes and who stirs up a rebellion against those residing in the upper-class section of the train. Tilda Swinton plays a member of the upper class named Minister Mason, a character written for a male but transformed into a part for a female because director Boon wanted Swinton involved in the project.

At the LA press day for the thriller, Swinton explained the evolution and look of the character and why she chooses such unusual roles.

On creating the character:

Tilda Swinton: “Well, this was really good fun because the script…I knew director Bong anyway and he told me about Snowpiercer and then when I read it.  I went, ‘There is no [woman] there. There is Octavia Spencer obviously, and the woman with the yellow dress and there is nobody else.’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’s true. Let us think about something in the future.’ And then a few weeks later he wrote to me and said, ‘You see Minister Mason who is described as a mild mannered-man in a suit?’ – and is still described that way, we never updated it – ‘What do you reckon?’ And so I thought, ‘Okay, how much fun can I have with it?’ And he said, ‘Try me,’ basically.

So we just built up a clown. I wanted to make a clown out of this politician, this really sinister, corrupt individual. Apart from the fact that I think there are so many wonderful corrupt clowns in cinema, from Dr Strangelove to The Great Dictator, in life you switch on the news and there will be somebody posturing and making an idiot of themselves and people voting them in because they want a soap opera. So that was really sort of the key. We tried to push it as far as we could.”

On the freedom allowed playing Mason:

Tilda Swinton: “It is very interesting to try and analyze how director Bong and I were able to work together, because it feels as if we made every decision together from the very beginning when we first met. We first met and we became friends [snaps fingers] instantly, and we knew we wanted to work together. Then when we decided to try to make something with Minister Mason, which was director Bong’s idea, it was like a challenge. He put down a glove [slaps table]. He said, ‘What do you think?’ And then we kind of dared each other.

I had these fantasies about this clown, which was based originally on one photograph that we found married with a character that I knew – a real person from my childhood. And then we kind of mixed in all the crazy clown megalomaniac cowards that the news channels show us every day. Yeah, we just kept throwing in elements.

The wonderful thing is that Dooho [Choi, producer] and director Bong and our wonderful costume designer [Catherine George] came to visit me in Scotland, and I had a pie for lunch. I picked them up at the airport, put the pie in the oven, and said, ‘Okay, we have 20 minutes before the pie is warm.’ We went into the drawing room and we played. We dressed up with bits of children’s costumes and ribbons and we made fake medals and had some glasses and we kind of got it 20 minutes [later] and then we ate the pie. So it took 20 minutes, really.

But, it was so wonderful. As we were playing we had these ideas, like a fantastic pendulous breast. We just said that, and when I arrived in Prague there they were. And Jamie Bell loved wearing them of course. We have a picture of him. Our crew picture involves Jamie Bell wearing Mason’s breasts.”

On the appeal of visually dynamic, chameleonic roles:

Tilda Swinton: “For me, it is all about dressing up and playing. For me that is the fun of it, which does not mean that it is not interesting to work with a finer tooth comb with something more delicate in something like I Am Love or even Orlando, where I am using a face that looks more like my own. But I do love working with these shapes; making shapes is kind of what I do. It is such fun. Also, it means I have done my work before we start shooting. If I do my work, we start shooting and then I play.”

On her character’s teeth:

Tilda Swinton: “I don’t know, there is always meaning with teeth, isn’t there? I am sure a Freudian will tell us what it all meant. They were, again as with the breasts and the wig that we never glued down, just part of the package. It is really tricky to work out how this all happened, it just all came about and the teeth were always going to be there. The nose was one of the first things, I think that was almost the first thing I said to [director Boon]. I always wanted to play a character with a nose… When we were waiting for the pie to warm, I went and got some cello tape and we cello taped my nose up like that.”

On working on such an international production:

Tilda Swinton: “We were kind of in, as on most really inspired sets, we were in the nation of cinema. I think most filmmakers really love that fact that when you are on a set that is really kind of hopping and really humming everybody is kind of in that nation as it’s kind of nation free.”

On what’s up next:

Tilda Swinton: “I had just been shooting with Jude Apatow and Amy Schumer, funnily enough a film called Trainwreck. That will probably come out next I imagine, but not till next summer.”