Tilda Swinton explores assisted suicide in Pedro Almodovar's 'The Room Next Door'

TORONTO — Although “The Room Next Door” is Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, Tilda Swinton notes that he’s never written in a language that anyone else truly speaks.

“He writes in Pedro language, and here he is making another film in another version of Pedro language, which just happens to sound a little bit like English,” Swinton said.

Set in New York, Swinton stars as Martha, a terminally ill woman who chooses to end her life on her own terms. After reconnecting with her friend Ingrid, played by Julianne Moore, Martha persuades her to stay and keep her company before she goes through with her decision.

Beyond the film’s narrative, Swinton said she believes individuals should have a say in their own living and dying. She acknowledges that she has personally witnessed a friend’s compassionate departure.

“In my own life I had the great good fortune to be asked by someone in Martha’s position to be his Ingrid (Julianne Moore),” Swinton said.

She said that experience shaped her attitude about life and death: “Not only my capacity to be witness to other people in that situation, but my own living and my own dying.”

Swinton spoke to The Associated Press about “The Room Next Door,” Almodóvar and he idea of letting people die on their own terms. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Tackling that role, what was the challenge to get into the character?

SWINTON: I felt really blessed by the opportunity. So many of us have been in the situation Julianne Moore’s character finds herself in, being asked to be the witness of someone who is dying. Whether that wanting to orchestrate their own dismount or not, to be in that position to be a witness is something that I’ve been privileged to experience many times in my life since I was quite young.

AP: Many people experience watching terminally ill family members, can this film help them?

SWINTON: It’s a really beautiful poem to a possibility of an attitude. I think (my character) Martha’s attitude to her own living is really inspiring. I would like to think that this is a really generous proposal and that it might inspire people to just know that it’s possible to face their own death with dignity, which is really what we’re talking about.

It really is a fool’s errand to think we can avoid thinking about death because it’s not just unlucky people who get ill or who die. It’s an inevitability. And so we might as well, you know, embrace it. And by the way, the more we embrace it, I would suggest the more we will enjoy our living.

AP: Your character goes to great extents to alleviate the criminality. Do you think that also shows that that perhaps that there is a place in a society for assisted suicide?

SWINTON: There are many countries in the world where it is not criminal to assist somebody’s active will to orchestrate their own dying. And in the United States, there are 10 states where it is not criminal, where it’s possible for two doctors to assist in the active will of a patient to take charge of their own dying. And it’s there are just other places where and New York State, which is where our film is set, is not one of those 10 states. And there are all sorts of people, very wise and very compassionate people, very educated and very enlightened people, in my view, who are actively campaigning to broaden this acceptance.

AP: You’ve worked with lots of great directors in your career, what was the adjustment to working with Pedro?

SWINTON: I’d had a taste of it with short film, “The Human Voice.” We made it in the middle of COVID. We shot it in nine days. Super, super fast… And I thought that Pedro was working very fast because it was a short film and because we were in the middle of COVID. No, no, that is the way Pedro works. I now discover super, super fast two takes, if you’re lucky.

AP: Does his style put your performance on an organic path?

SWINTON: I mean, it really helps always when you know the work of a filmmaker as well as it’s possible to know Pedro’s work. I’ve known it since I was a student, and I’ve loved it always. It’s like a country. I love to go to the world of Almodóvar and it’s not Spain, it’s somewhere else. It’s his environment. So, stepping into the frame of a filmmaker who creates that environment is always a bit of a trip.

AP: At Venice, the film resonated with audiences with a very long standing ovation. How validating was that?

SWINTON: It’s still a bit of a shock to us. When you’re in an audience, that’s the first indication of whether the souffle has risen or not. Apparently 18-and-a-half minutes is a record when you’re standing next to Pedro Almodóvar and you know that that is 18-and-a-half minutes of people really lovingly appreciating him. It pretty much doesn’t get much better than that.

AP: Is awards season something that you look at when you’re doing a film like this? When you hear the buzz, is that something that’s ever on your mind?

SWINTON: Not mine. To be honest, I’m ignorant really, of that in particular. I have other things on my mind. That’s like the weather. It’s like saying, do you have the weather in three months on your mind? Well, no. Let’s wait and see. Let’s keep it real. Let’s keep it today.