Tilda Swinton doesn’t like Harry Potter for glorifying ‘cruel’ boarding schools
Tilda Swinton has hit out at the Harry Potter franchise for ‘romanticising’ boarding schools, which she described as “cruel”.
The 56-year-old actor said she was sent to the West Heath Girls’ School in Kent, but that she thinks such schools are damaging to children.
Swinton tells The Scots magazine: “I think they are a very cruel setting in which to grow up and I don’t feel children benefit from that type of education.
“Children need their parents. That’s why I dislike films like Harry Potter, which tend to romanticise such places.”
Of her own upbringing, Swinton says: “I grew up under privileged circumstances and was expected to marry a duke. I spent a lot of time and energy making certain that I would not find myself living a life that had been pre-ordained for me.”
The Doctor Strange star earlier this year said she is holding out for a gay superhero film.
The legendary artist and actress, best known for her roles in Michael Clayton and We Need To Talk About Kevin, is set to appear as The Eternal in upcoming Marvel film Doctor Strange.
In an interview with Out Magazine, Swinton addressed some of the criticism about the film’s race-flipping – with her taking on the revamped role of an Asian comic book character.
Responding to critics, she said: “Anyone speaking up for a greater accuracy in the representation of the diversity of the world we live in has me right beside them.
“As someone who has worked from the beginning as an artist within a queer aesthetic, the urgency of that voice is always going to be welcome.
“At the same time, the film Marvel has made—in which they created a part for which I was not bad casting, in actual fact—is a departure from the source material in more ways than one.
“Ironically, their casting is positively diverse in this case: The Ancient One in this film was never written as the bearded old Tibetan man portrayed in the comics. Baron Mordo, a Caucasian Transylvanian in the graphic novels, is here played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Benedict Wong plays a newly expanded and significant role as Wong, who in the comics is a mini-minor character.
“I believe in Marvel’s wholehearted commitment to creating a diverse and vibrant universe, avoiding stereotype and cliché wherever possible in a determination to keep things fresh and lively.”
