VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Tilda Swinton Reveals Why She’s Refusing To Wear A Mask Anymore

At the 2023 South By Southwest (SXSW) festival, Tilda Swinton was on stage as a keynote speaker. She stars in the film Problemista, which premiered at the event, as the eccentric art critic that drags the immigrant toy designer Alejandro, played by writer and director Julio Torres, around to archive and catalog her late husband’s artwork, played by RZA.

While on stage, Swinton discussed how the pandemic affected filmmaking – and declared to the audience’s surprise that she won’t wear a mask anymore.

“We’ve had different challenges in the last few years, particularly with, and some of them are lingering, around people’s belief in sitting in big spaces,” she began. “Look at you, I bet you none of you are wearing masks as well. I mean, who knew that was gonna be possible? There was a time where – I mean, in Texas did people wear masks? I have to ask, I don’t know, it’s a wide world and people do things differently all over the place. I’m actually just about to start shooting a picture in Ireland and I was told… 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, but it’s very nice to see your faces unmasked.”

“But, yeah, a couple of years ago we couldn’t imagine sitting in a room like this and I did wonder how long it would be before we would be able to and I did have a concern that those who thought that sitting in a big place to look at a big screen was a bit obsolete would kind of gain traction and that that would just tip it over the edge and people would just forget the power of the magic carpet,” Swinton continued. “It was a concern, but then this magical thing happened, you know. You ask anybody, not just silly nerds like us, what they really missed during the pandemic, and they said the same things. They said friends, family, live music, and cinema. Those were the only things people missed, and a bit of travel as well, but you know there’s always David Attenborough and the cinema for that.”