Tilda Swinton readily credits groundbreaking British director Derek Jarman with helping her forge a successful acting career, admitting that she would have quit film without his encouragement. Jarman and Swinton became close friends in 1985 at the casting call for his movie Caravaggio, and the Academy Award-winning actress is convinced the encounter changed her life. She says, “If I hadn’t met Derek, I wouldn’t have carried on performing. I probably would have become a professional gambler. At the time, I was working the horses a bit. What he offered me was a home (in film). We didn’t fit in. I knew I didn’t want to be in a corset in Merchant Ivory Films.” Swinton and Jarman collaborated on a number of films together, including War Requiem (1989) and The Last of England (1987), before his death in 1994. War Requiem is the film that pulled Laurence Olivier out of retirement and would turn out to be his last ever performance. I’ve attached War Requiem for you to watch in full below. For all FEELguide posts related to Tilda Swinton CLICK HERE.
