Tilda Swinton Said She Channeled Ivanka Trump in Her Latest Villainous Role
Tilda Swinton is no stranger to playing the villain in a cinematic masterpiece or two, but for her latest role as the baddie in Netflix’s much anticipated Okja, she drew inspiration from one very, um, specific public figure: First Daughter Ivanka Trump.
Okja, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday and reportedly received a four-minute-long standing ovation, tells the story of a friendship between a young girl and a genetically-engineered, hippolike beast created by an evil company led by Swinton’s Lucy Mirando, a shiny, manicured heiress.
In a new interview with the Wrap, Swinton described her character as an “heir to a rotten great fortune built on the corrupt and morally repugnant initiatives carried out by her father. … Driven by a combination of impassioned narcissism and a competitive determination to do things differently, she is dedicated to fashioning a gleaming public image, to rebooting Mirando’s reputation in the shape of an eco-conscious and world-saving beacon of positivity. She will stop at nothing, certainly not the truth, in the pursuit of this aim: She is a liar, from start to finish.”
So, not a very flattering portrait.
But still, the actress didn’t hesitate to describe exactly how she got into the mindset of playing such a sinister woman. When asked by the Wrap if the fictional corporate titans in the film bore any parallels to a real-life family in power, the Trumps, Swinton not-so-subtly confirmed the theory, and even called out a certain namesake-brand founding daughter.
“When we shot in New York last summer, I stood watching the Republican convention on the television in our lunch break dressed as Lucy, watching a different daughter of a different dubious dynasty addressing, from a high podium, a big crowd, with glossy blond hair, expensive orthodontics, and modeling her Barbie-perfect modest pink dress (concurrently on sale online),” Swinton said. “Chicken? Egg?”
The answer seems pretty crystal clear, Tilda.
Related: Here’s Tilda Swinton Talking About The Nightmares a Pig Might Have
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