Tilda Swinton Acknowledges The ‘Bloody’ Reality Of Being A Mother

Being a mother isn’t all sunshine and lollipops so it’s always nice when someone in the public eye tells it like it is. Tilda Swinton alluded to the hardships she has endured as a parent in a recent press junket for her new film We Need To Talk About Kevin. Tilda stars in the film as Eva, a mother whose son has committed a mass murder. In Cannes, Tilda said that the film’s plot is “not that far away from the everyday experience of being a parent,” particularly with regards to isolation. It’s worth noting that even a married woman with two children can find the experience of parenting to be difficult.

Tilda is quoted by The Guardian as saying:

“That feeling of being left at the end of the day with yourself ”¦ Of course, in Eva’s case it’s extreme, a nightmare scenario, but it’s not that far from the everyday experience of being a parent, being up against your own monologue whomever you are talking to.”

She went on to point out the trials of being a child, the stress in maintaining a family, and the experience of birth.

“It is a bloody business being in a family; a bloody business having a child and a really bloody business, as we know, being a child. It is a truly murderous business giving birth: it is a violent place to go.”

Tilda’s quotes serve mothers well in providing a counter to mythologies about childhood and birth being consistent, deliriously happy experiences. In being honest about her family, she expands the notion of motherhood just a little more.

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