Tilda Swinton and George Clooney portray legal adversaries in Michael Clayton
The following comments are excerpted from an exclusive conversation with Tilda Swinton on September 8, 2007 during the Toronto Film Festival. Swinton, who recently starred in The Chronicles of Narnia, next appears opposite George Clooney in the dramatic thriller Michael Clayton (Warner Brothers), which opens nationwide on Friday.
Talk a little about Michael Clayton--in your words, what is it about, and what is it really about?
On one hand, it’s a really rocking genre thriller with people in suits in high-rise buildings and flashy cars bandying about phrases like, “trillions of dollars” and things, right? And it’s George Clooney. So that’s your, sort of, gloss package--and, you know, it’s a good package, that, you know? That was the package that fueled a really interesting tendency of cinema in the seventies, you know? I felt every day we went to work we were making a Parallax View or Three Days of the Condor, you know? That whole genre was something that we were all great fans of, and it’s an homage to that, and it’s also plumbing the same mine. But I think it’s more subtle than that, and I think that what Tony Gilroy, who’s a really sophisticated dude, and a great writer, he does this really simple thing, which is, of course, always the most difficult, which is that he goes into that genre, and he says, “I’m just gonna ask a really, really simple question, which is: How do these inhuman things get done by humans? People who love their children, and who put on their makeup in the mirror, and whose bras are too tight—how do these people actually do these things?” And I think that’s what it’s about. And that’s why you don’t have to be a corporate lawyer to get a kick out of it, because all of us, all the time, have to make difficult decisions. You know, you work in a bakery, and you’re asked to do something that goes slightly against the grain of your instinct, and then you’re asked to do something else, and then you slowly get taken away from yourself, and who knows, you’re murdering somebody in a loft. Whatever. But, you know, with all of this, this whole question of being encouraged to leave our instincts and our consciences outside while we make the ‘right’ decision—I think it’s about that, it’s about that whole argument about doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. You know, this film is full of people doing the wrong things for the right reasons, they think—trying to be good. And I play this character who’s sitting in the villain seat, but what Tony does is he gives you the portrait of a perfectly ordinary, pretty messed up, insecure, not very well-cast corporate lawyer who is trying to be good; she’s just trying to be the best she can possibly be, and to see how that person becomes the villain, rather than somebody, kind of, twirling their mustache and saying, “Aha! I am so wicked!”
I've heard that you are particularly fond of the scene in which your character appears in front of her bathroom mirror. Why was that important to you?
You know, you read in the newspaper, or you see on a television, or you hear about these—every minute of every day, more, and more, and more, and more—these inhumane things being perpetrated. And you go, “How did this guy or woman actually look at themselves in the mirror this morning having pushed that button, having condemned those people to death, having invaded that country? How? How do they go home and pet their dog?” But they do. They do. And their mothers love them, and they’re very kind to their children, and, you know, they get cold like normal people, and they like a warm bath, and they’re human beings. And I think we all wonder about that. And he put that right up there. And also that fantastic scene when she’s laying all her clothes out like a samurai warrior before she goes in for the kill. I mean, that’s just cream.
What was it like working with a first-time director?
Well, first of all, the interesting thing to notice about Tony Gilroy is that he may be a first-time director, but he’s not a first-time filmmaker. He’s been a filmmaker for years, and his scripts are—how can I put it? The scripts he writes—and that goes to the Bourne scripts, The Devil’s Advocate, Dolores Claiborne—they are evidence of the film that he sees in his head. He’s told me this, so I know it. He’s always been a director, and he’s been writing down the transcript of the film that he would make, and that’s been his script, and so he’s been a scriptwriter. But he’s always been a director. And so it was really—‘easy’ is a very reductive way of putting it—it was really beautiful to see him just take it. And the first day of shooting, we went home at three o’clock in the afternoon, which is kind of unheard of.
Was he good about allowing you actors the freedom to improvise or create? Were those things you mentioned in the script?
First of all, you do not mess with a Tony Gilroy script. I mean, that is some rocking dialog and, you know, I would defy anybody to mess with it. But, at the same time, you know, what we were asked to do was to, you know, make ‘em 3-D, these people. So there was a certain amount of—you know, he’s a smart enough and powerful enough writer that he knows what Tony wants to say, so, you know, if you suggest some action that’s different, he’ll change it for you, you know, if it’s right, if it’s a better way of hitting that tone. That’s what’s so great about working with a director who is also a writer—there’s no preciousness about the script, and there’s no concerns about, you know, being some text. He can just amend it whichever way he wants.
Whose work on this film do you think will stand out the most to people?
I think that, you know, Tony Gilroy is a major new directing talent, and that’s for sure, and that, I would say, is the jewel in the crown of the film. And George Clooney just goes on getting better and better, and now he’s in every frame of the film, so that can’t be a bad thing. And Tom Wilkinson, you know, just comes running straight out of the gate, and just punches a hole in the wall. And it’s edited—and I’m going to go through the whole credits now!—by John Gilroy, who’s Tony’s brother, and, you know, it’s really, really important that people notice that one of the reasons that the film is what it is is because it’s so well edited. And it’s shot by Robert Elswit.
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