When you see it...
Tilda Swinton has a striking backlog of roles that spans the most poisonous of villains to otherworldly creatures. Now, in her latest part in Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, she’s drawing direct influence from the evils of this era for blonde CEO baddie Lucy Mirando: inspired by Ivanka Trump.
Speaking in a new interview with the Wrap, the actor, model and Dazed favourite describes 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.”
Swinton is asked directly whether her role draws on the reality of the first family. She straight up explains: “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). Chicken? Egg?”
Okja follows Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 sci-fi hit, Snowpiercer. The fantastical film, also produced by Swinton, is premiering on Netflix in June. According to the official synopsis, a hippo-massive pig hybrid creature is kidnapped by an evil multinational corporation run by a self-serving CEO, Lucy. A young Korean farmer girl called Mija (played by Seo-Hyun Ahn) sets out on a quest to save her genetically-engineered friend, who the massive conglomerate want to use as food produce.
Watch the trailer for Okja, out June 28 on Netflix, below.
