OSCAR-winner Tilda Swinton has said Scotland is a “naturally independent country” as she promotes her latest movie.
The London-born actor said she has “never felt” either British or English whilst on the interview trail for horror remake Suspiria, in which she plays three different parts, including that of an elderly German man.
Critics failed to spot the Nairn resident under the prosthetics until she revealed it was her.
The 57-year-old has repeatedly emphasised her nationality despite frequent confusion over her accents, which she has described as sounding like “something out of 1930s BBC”.
In a new interview with the BBC, Swinton has clarified her position, stating: “I don’t quite believe the word British.
“I feel like it’s sort of a strictly-for-export term.
“I don’t really know what it means.
“I think it has something to do with a sort of political attitude.”
The Doctor Strange star, whose grandfather was Scottish politician George Swinton, went on: “I have lived in Scotland full-time for the last 20 years, I was brought up in Scotland through my childhood, I am from a family that has lived in Scotland for centuries.
“I have never felt English, and I have never felt British, politically.
“I am happy to describe myself as Scottish and I feel, like many people, that Scotland is a naturally independent country.”
Suspiria, which includes music from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, is a retelling of the 1970s cult classic by Italian director Dario Argento and will hit UK cinemas on November 16.
Swinton’s father Major General Sir John Swinton of Kimmerghame, who died earlier this month at the age of 93, had spoken of his daughter’ outlook, stating: “Tilda is very proud of being Scottish, she is a fervent Scot. She would have undoubtedly been a soldier. She is a soldier in her outlook.”
The actor praised her father when accepting the Grand Honorary Award at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival in the hours after his death.
Thanking organisers, she told the audience: “I was with him, in Scotland, and I’ve been with him for the last week and he’s been asleep but he’s been dreaming and I’ve been sitting there thinking about what he’s thinking about or what he’s fantasising about, and I knew that I had this beautiful invitation from you to come here tonight, and I thought, ‘can I go, what if he’s still here?’
“And he left this morning.”
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