I have great admiration for people who refuse to fit in, go against the type, and live by their own rules and beliefs. I applaud those who are bold, provocative and courageous in their life and career choices.

This is precisely why I consider myself a staunch fan of Tilda Swinton and her daring and unpredictable nature and work. She’s refreshing and quirky, individualistic in every way. From her alluring androgynous looks and platinum locks to her chameleon performances in a diverse set of film roles, Swinton is “a singular artist” – words I have used to describe her in the title of Manori Ravindran of an artist who rejects labels as “actor”, let alone “actress”.

She tells our international editor that she prefers to think of herself as a “colleague”, someone who is part of a collective, or a “kindergarten” where people come to learn. As Ravindran says, “Swinton is not joining a production; she joins a family. Thai author and Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul, who directed Swinton in “Memoria,” which is making her Cannes debut, says she “considers herself one of the film’s workers who sharing of responsibilities, “a participant in every aspect of” what’s in the frame. So, in a sense, she’s a filmmaker like me and like everyone else.

Emphasizing how prolific Swinton is, “Memoria” is just one of five films at this year’s festival that features her, with each role also being different from each other. “The French Dispatch” marks his fourth collaboration with another unique artist, director Wes Anderson, who is about as far from being a Hollywood creature as Swinton. Anderson says that for “French Dispatch” he wrote the role of art critic JKL Berensen especially for her and that she “immediately knew that it was more or less a role that only she could play and had to be. for her”.

I first met and spoke with Swinton at an afterparty in Cannes for his Netflix film “Okja,” a strange but moving work by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho about a young girl who befriends a oversized pig. Swinton has portrayed twin sisters, one who becomes CEO after pitching her plan to raise the ‘super pig’, the other her power-hungry brother trying to overthrow her.

I found Swinton to be engaging, gentle, extraordinarily intelligent, and poetically articulate.

A line from our cover illustrates his way of speaking: “The films themselves are leaves falling from the tree, but the tree is the conversation.

There is something indescribably ethereal and otherworldly about Swinton. “At 60, she exudes a sense of immortality,” writes Ravindran, responding to Swinton’s answer when asked if she thinks there are signs of real change in Hollywood: “Ask me that. in 100 years.