Tilda Swinton talks friendship, her connection with Chanel and the themes in ‘The Room Next Door’
Tilda Swinton is everywhere: just recently, she was in Beverly Hills to attend the Golden Globes, and she will be in Hong Kong before Chinese New Year. Yes, the 2024 Golden Globes Best Actress nominee—who rocked the event in head-to-toe Chanel—will be in our city as part of M+’s film programme “Tilda Swinton: Between Worlds”. The boundary-defying actor will share the stage with Hong Kong film pioneer Tang Shushuen at M+ Cinema for this event, which celebrates her career-defining partnerships across four decades. This special dialogue will explore the artists’ creative trajectories and their passion for preserving film heritage.
M+ Cinema will also present a curated screening series from January 18 to 25. It spotlights Swinton’s diverse repertoire including Jim Jarmusch’s vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), her latest collaboration The End (2024), Derek Jarman’s early work Caravaggio and Caprice (1986), and her Golden Globe-nominated performance in The Room Next Door (2024), which will arrive in Hong Kong cinemas on February 6.
*Read More: Golden Globes 2025: Lessons from the winning films and TV shows*
The official trailer of “The Room Next Door”
Beyond her achievements in cinema, Swinton is also an avant-garde fashion icon and has been a Chanel brand ambassador for a decade, often wearing the maison's outfits at events. At the 82nd Golden Globe Awards ceremony, for example, she slipped into an exquisitely crafted Chanel custom ensemble. Her white tweed jacket was embellished with white striated and glossy porcelain sequins, delicate golden crystal and bead braid details, and she paired it with a flowing silk black velvet skirt.
Through this haute couture ensemble, she not only showed off her eclectic style but also celebrated Chanel’s artistic excellence on the red carpet of one of Hollywood’s biggest awards nights.
Tilda Swinton wore Chanel to this year’s Golden Globes (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
Tilda Swinton wore Chanel to this year’s Golden Globes (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
How do you feel about being nominated for the Golden Globes for The Room Next Door?Highly honoured. And deeply touched. This film is extraordinarily personal for all of us who made it, quite humbly offered, vulnerable and close to the heart. I went to California this new year to celebrate our work together and the friendship the film is built upon, both in its narrative and its making.
Could you describe the look that you will be wearing and the emotions it conveys?I am wearing a look created by my friends in the haute couture atelier at Chanel: according to the eternal codes of the house, something very simple, timeless and chic. A black silk velvet skirt and a jacket made of encrusted cream paillettes, it resonates with me like a uniform. It represents–this “uniform”—not only my allegiance to my filmmaking comrades on The Room Next Door but also my long and profound fellowship with the house of Chanel.
The Chanel jacket required 600 hours of meticulous craftsmanship (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
The intricate design features approximately 130,000 individual embroidered elements (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
What feelings does wearing Chanel at an event evoke for you?Constancy. Legacy. A modesty of elegance. And, in couture especially, the fellowship of a thousand hours undertaken by many magic hands. As a soldier’s daughter, I take very seriously this honour of representing the “regiment”: it gives me a cloak of supportive identity which I hold dear at all times.
You have a long friendship with Chanel. Do you have any special memories of working with them?Way too many to mention. But, from Paris to Venice, from Havana to Hangzhou to Tokyo to Monaco to Dubai to Shanghai to Manchester and all points in between, all Chanel experiences without fail are marked by a consistency of wonder, impeccable artistry, detailed care—and reliable downright fun had with exceptionally kind and nice people. The crew of the intergalactic ship of Chanel has to be the most advanced and sensationally privileged band in existence. It is one of the pleasures of my life to serve on board.
Chanel has deep, longtime ties to the worlds of dance, art, literature and, of course, cinema. What are your thoughts on the house’s commitment to the arts?Chanel continues to impress me deeply with its settled commitment to a unique role as a cultural patron around the world. Chanel continues to encourage artists—emerging and established alike—by providing inspired and ongoing support, both financially and by way of setting up a wide community on which artists can rely. At a time when arts funding in many parts of the world is either critically threatened or non-existent, and living an artist’s life ever more difficult to sustain, such a gesture of emboldened fellowship has never been more crucial. We need art at a time like this more than we might acknowledge—it is our best hope for enlightenment and, as Gabrielle Chanel would say, it is our next resort. For vibrant art to flourish, we need to protect and nourish the lives of the artists who make it.
Tilda Swinton’s Chanel ensemble (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
Tilda Swinton’s Chanel ensemble (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
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