By Brian Gallagher For Dailymail.com
04:02 14 Mar 2023, updated 04:57 14 Mar 2023
Tilda Swinton is done with the COVID-19 masking protocols on film sets, revealing she is now refusing to wear a mask on set.
The 62-year-old London native – who was spotted in January at Paris Fashion Week – was featured in a keynote address at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas on Monday afternoon.
She began her program at the Austin Convention Center by stating that she was so happy that pandemic had progressed enough to the point where everyone in the audience didn’t have to wear masks.
Her last time at SXSW was nine years ago in 2014, reflecting that she didn’t see anyone wearing masks during her first time to the festival.
‘We’ve had different challenges in the last few years particularly, and some of them are lingering around people’s belief in sitting in big spaces,’ Swinton began, before turning to the audience.
‘Look at you. I bet none of you are wearing masks, as well. I mean, who knew that was going to be possible?’ Swinton added.
‘There was a time… I mean, in Texas, did people even wear masks? I have to ask,’ Swinton said with a smile, as some in the audience laughed, as she added, ‘I don’t know, it’s a wide world and people do things differently all over.’
‘I’m actually just about to start shooting a picture in Ireland, and I was told – full disclosure, and I’m sure this is being recorded and people in Ireland might hear it – to wear a mask at all times, and I’m not wearing a mask because I’m super healthy and I’ve had COVID so many times and I’m so full of antibodies and I have faith,’ Swinton said.
She added, ‘It’s very nice to see all of your faces unmasked, but yeah, a couple of years ago, we couldn’t imagine sitting in a room like this, could we?’
Swinton admitted that she did wonder, ‘how long it would be’ before people could gather safely indoors again and she had a concern that, ‘those who thought sitting in a big place to look at a big screen was a bit obsolete, would kind of gain traction and that would tip it over the edge and people would just forget the power of the magic carpet.’
The actress said that this ‘magical thing happened’ which was many people saying that one of the biggest things they missed during the pandemic was going to the theater.
She added that she thought it was, ‘the one good thing about the pandemic, that it was making the people naysay the people who said that theaters were on the way out.’
Her comments come just over a year after revealing in an interview with The Guardian that she suffered from long COVID for months.
She said that in August 2021 she couldn’t get out of bed for three weeks after coming down with COVID.
‘I was coughing like an old gentleman who smoked a pipe for 70 years, and had nasty vertigo. I got off relatively lightly, but the worst thing is how it affected my brain,’ she admitted.
‘I did two films that I had to learn a lot of text for. One was the Wes Anderson and he likes you to speak like a speeding train,’ Swinton said.
‘I’m normally quite quick at studying, and picking stuff up, but this was like chewing a really big piece of gum. I couldn’t remember my lines,’ she admitted.
When asked if she’s still coping with long COVID, Swinton admitted, ‘More or less, but I’m still forgetting things. I have to work my brain.’
The actress was at SXSW for the world premiere of her new film Problemista, where she stars alongside writer-director-star Julio Torres and RZA.
She also has two more films arriving in 2023, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, with Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson, and David Fincher’s The Killer with Michael Fassbender.
Swinton is also attached to star in the musical The End with George McKay, about the last human family.