Tilda Swinton to Take Hiatus From Making Movies

After her trip to Berlinale 2025, legendary actress Tilda Swinton is taking a break from acting. She spoke to journalists at the Berlin-based film festival this morning to announce that she will be headed to Scotland for some much needed rest and relaxation. “I need a break, and I’m going to have one,” she said, per Deadline. “We all know filmmaking is a merciless mistress and I have been under the lash for a while.”

“When I go home to Scotland on Monday, I am entering something that I have been looking forward to for 15 years, which is a period of my life when I do something different. I can’t quite say what it is, but I can say I’m not shooting a film for the rest of this year.”

Throughout her career, Swinton has received nominations for just about every honor you can think of: Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, BAFTAs, and more. She is best known for working with auteur directors like Guillermo del Toro, David Fincher, and Wes Anderson. She also appeared in all of the Chronicles of Narnia movies as the White Witch. She received the Silver Medallion from Telluride in 2011 for her lifelong achievements in the film industry, and received the Honorary Golden Bear this year at Berlinale as the festival’s guest of honor.

Swinton made headlines for attending Berlinale despite the ongoing protest against the festival by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as festival head Tricia Tuttle has expressed her support for Israel. Swinton has been an advocate for Palestine in the past, and explained why she still attended: “I’m a great admirer of and have a great deal of respect for BDS and I think about it a lot,” said Swinton.

“I decided it was more important for me to come. I was given a platform, which I decided in a personal moment was potentially more useful to all our causes than me not turning up. It was a judgment call that I take full responsibility for… What we’re all up against is this feeling of powerlessness and helplessness, so any powerful action or gesture we can make feels like a good option. I understand that boycotting can feel, and often is, the most powerful thing we can do.”

Swinton was last seen in Pedro Almodóvar‘s 2024 drama The Room Next Door with Julianne Moore and John Turturro. Her next film The Ballad of a Small Player from Conclave director Edward Berger finished filming last August and is currently in post-production.