Swinton helps birth nightmare called 'Kevin'

Tilda Swinton arrives at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. LOS ANGELES TIMES Enlarge

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Every mother has a birthing story, the play-by-play narrative that took her across the chasm from independence to attachment. Tilda Swinton is no exception. When the Scottish actress gave birth to her boy-and-girl twins 14 years ago, Swinton, who plays the mother to a troubled son in the new film We Need to Talk About Kevin, didn't opt for the easy -- or perhaps, even the safe -- way out. Rather then choose medical intervention when the babies were late, she waited until they were ready to be born on their own. They finally arrived after 43 weeks of pregnancy, weighing in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and 8 pounds, 10 ounces.

The anecdote is pure Swinton: It showcases her daring, stubborn spirit. Her uncompromising nature is evident in both her singular fashion and acting choices and dates back to her early days as a muse to experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman. Over the last decade, though, with the exception of her Oscar-winning role in the 2007 legal drama Michael Clayton and her portrayal of the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, Swinton's work in such films as The Deep End and last year's I Am Love has centered on the concept of motherhood and how it affects a woman's sense of self.

"It's interesting to me how one grows a new identity when one becomes a mother and how one is encouraged to believe that the part of oneself that existed before you had children has somehow magically died forever," said Swinton, as she tapped her finger against her tea cup during an interview at the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica.

In We Need to Talk About Kevin, directed and co-written by fellow Scot Lynne Ramsay, Swinton plays Eva Khatchadourian, a free spirit who reluctantly becomes a mother, bearing an emotionally manipulative child who commits a Columbine-style massacre at his high school. Indie distributor Oscilloscope booked Kevin into theaters for one week in December to qualify for various awards, and is now releasing the movie for its regular run. It hasn't yet been scheduled to come to Toledo.

Swinton was nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her performance in the film, adapted from Lionel Shriver's novel.

"I would have been really into [this movie] even if I hadn't had children," Swinton said. "But having children gave it a little extra added piquancy into the schadenfreude of the whole thing. You go home every night thinking, thank the Lord that's not my story."

With Eva's failings and Kevin's disturbing behavior, the story often plays like a horror movie for parents. Yet Swinton found the idea of tackling the interior life of the troubled lead character compelling, and she was interested in helping Ramsay get her career back on track.

Kevin is the first film in almost 10 years from the acclaimed writer-director behind the well-received indie projects Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar. Ramsay had been set to adapt the bestselling novel The Lovely Bones before that film went to Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson.

After that project fell through, Ramsay and her husband and co-writer Rory Kinnear went to work adapting Kevin, which was originally told as a series of letters from Eva to her husband, played in the movie by John C. Reilly.

The film was shot in just 30 days in Connecticut and New York in spring, 2010, for around $6 million; the strict schedule meant that there were never more than two takes done of any given scene.

In making what is essentially a meditation on whether truly bad behavior is learned or innate, Ramsay and Swinton sought objectivity, never really proffering an opinion on whether Kevin was born evil or his behavior the result of a mother who was never accepting of her new role.

"The nature/nurture argument has been going on since the beginning of time," Ramsay said. "I think it would be crass of me to put some big stamp on it. That's the whole provocation of the film."

What might make Kevin even more resonant, though, is the way Eva is depicted before the tragedy as a relatable modern woman, a working professional who decides at a later age to settle down and have a child, then realizes just how difficult it is to adjust to her new life.

"When you're in your 40s and you've been an incredibly successful businesswoman for 20 years and you earn a fair bit of money, you're used to controlling your life and you only have things in your house that are nice, clean, and orderly, you've got a lot to lose when that chaos comes in, which it inevitably does with a child," Swinton said. "This film is not a social commentary, but I do think it touches on that issue."

Swinton's career has been on a high of late, but she's grateful for an upcoming respite. In addition to "growing children," the actress and producer, who still lives in Scotland when she's not working, has spent the last 12 years developing three films: Kevin, I Am Love, and Julia, all of which have been released.

Apart from a small role in Wes Anderson's upcoming film Moonrise Kingdom, Swinton's plate is completely empty.

"I'm a farmer who's had a big old harvest recently," Swinton said. "I've got a bit of a plowed field at the moment that I'm very happy about."