1980s: Early work Swinton joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, appearing in
Measure for Measure. She also worked with the
Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, starring in
No Son of Mine written and directed by
Philippe Gaulier in 1985 and
Mann ist Mann by Manfred Karge in 1987. On television, she appeared as Julia in the 1986 mini-series
Zastrozzi, A Romance based on the 1810
Gothic novel Zastrozzi by
Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her first film was
Caravaggio in 1986, directed by
Derek Jarman. In 1987, Swinton starred along
Bill Paterson in
Peter Wollen's ''
Friendship's Death'', she played a female extraterrestrial robot on a peace mission to Earth. In 1988, Swinton was a member of the jury at the
38th Berlin International Film Festival. Swinton went on to star in several Jarman films, including
The Last of England (1987),
War Requiem (1989) She performed in the performance art piece
Volcano Saga by
Joan Jonas in 1989. The 28-minute video art piece is based on a 13th-century Icelandic Laxdæla Saga, and it tells a mythological story of a young woman whose dreams tell of the future.
1990s: Rise to prominence Swinton played the title role in
Orlando (1992),
Sally Potter's film version of
the novel by
Virginia Woolf. The part allowed Swinton to explore matters of gender presentation onscreen, which reflected her lifelong interest in
androgynous style. Swinton later reflected on the role in an interview accompanied by a striking photo shoot. "People talk about androgyny in all sorts of dull ways," said Swinton, noting that the recent rerelease of
Orlando had her thinking again about its pliancy. She referred to 1920s playful, androgynous French artist
Claude Cahun: "Cahun looked at the limitlessness of an androgynous gesture, which I've always been interested in." In 1993, she was a member of the jury at the
18th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1995, with producer
Joanna Scanlan, Swinton developed a performance/installation live art piece in the
Serpentine Gallery, London, where she was on display to the public for a week, asleep or apparently so, in a glass case, as a piece of
performance art. The piece is sometimes incorrectly credited to
Cornelia Parker, whom Swinton invited to collaborate for the installation in London. The performance, titled
The Maybe, was repeated in 1996 at the
Museo Barracco in Rome and in 2013 at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1996, she appeared in the music video for
Orbital's "
The Box".
2000s: Career breakthrough The early 2000s saw Swinton move toward mainstream projects, including the leading role in the American film
The Deep End (2001), in which she played the mother of a gay son she suspects of killing his boyfriend. For this performance, she was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award. She appeared as a supporting character in the films
The Beach (2000), Swinton has collaborated with the fashion designers
Viktor & Rolf. She was the focus of their
One Woman Show 2003, in which they made all the models look like copies of Swinton, and she read a poem (of her own) that included the line, "There is only one you. Only one." In 2005, Swinton performed as the
White Witch Jadis, in the film version of
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and as Audrey Cobb in the
Mike Mills film adaptation of the novel
Thumbsucker. Swinton later had cameos in
Narnias sequels
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In August 2006, she opened the new
Screen Academy Scotland production centre in Edinburgh. In 2007, Swinton played ruthless
corporate attorney Karen Crowder in
Michael Clayton. Her performance earned her
Golden Globe,
Screen Actors Guild,
Critics' Choice,
BAFTA and
Oscar nominations. She went on to win the BAFTA and Oscar. In July 2008, Swinton founded the film festival
Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams. The event took place in a ballroom in
Nairn on Scotland's
Moray Firth in August. Swinton next appeared in the 2008
Coen Brothers film
Burn After Reading. She was cast in the role of wealthy British socialite Elizabeth Abbott in
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring alongside
Cate Blanchett and
Brad Pitt. She collaborated with artist
Patrick Wolf on his 2009 album
The Bachelor, contributing four spoken word pieces. Also in 2009, she and
Mark Cousins embarked on a project where they mounted a 33.5-tonne portable cinema on a large truck, hauling it manually through the
Scottish Highlands, creating a travelling independent film festival. The project was featured prominently in a documentary titled
Cinema Is Everywhere. The festival was repeated in 2011. She also had a starring role as the eponymous character in
Erick Zonca's
Julia, which premiered at the 2008
Berlin International Film Festival and saw a U.S. release in May 2009.
2010s: Continued acclaim Swinton starred in the film adaptation of the novel
We Need to Talk About Kevin, released in October 2011. She portrayed the mother of the title character, a teenage boy who commits a
high school massacre. In 2012, she was cast in
Jim Jarmusch's
Only Lovers Left Alive. The film premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2013, and was released in the U.S. in the first half of 2014. Also in 2012, Swinton appeared in
Doug Aitken's
SONG 1, an outdoor video installation created for the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. In November of the same year, she and Sandro Kopp made cameo appearances in episode 6 of the BBC comedy
Getting On. In 2014, she played secondary antagonist Minister Mason in
Bong Joon Ho's post-apocalyptic action thriller film
Snowpiercer. The film received critical acclaim and appeared on many film critics' top ten lists of 2014. She received a
Critics' Choice nomination. She co-founded Drumduan Upper School in
Findhorn, Scotland in 2013 with Ian Sutherland McCook. Swinton and McCook both had children who attended the Moray
Steiner School, whose students graduate at age 14. They founded Drumduan partly to allow their children to continue their Steiner educations with neither grading nor tests. Swinton resigned as a director of Drumduan in April 2019. In February 2013, she played the part of
David Bowie's wife in the promotional video for his song "
The Stars (Are Out Tonight)", directed by
Floria Sigismondi. In 2013, she was named as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50 by
The Guardian. In 2015, she starred in
Luca Guadagnino's thriller
A Bigger Splash, alongside
Dakota Johnson,
Matthias Schoenaerts, and
Ralph Fiennes. Also in 2015, she played Dianne, Amy Schumer's character's editor on S'Nuff Magazine, in
Trainwreck. Swinton played the
Ancient One in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the 2016 film
Doctor Strange and the 2019 film
Avengers: Endgame. Swinton starred in
Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake of the horror film
Suspiria. She played three roles, and was credited as Lutz Ebersdorf for one of them. She was ranked one of the best dressed women in 2018 by fashion website Net-a-Porter.
2020s: Current work In 2021, Swinton starred as newspaper writer J.K.L. Berensen in the
Wes Anderson anthology film
The French Dispatch, and as Jessica Holland in
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's first English-language film,
Memoria. In 2022 she starred in
George Miller's fantasy film
Three Thousand Years of Longing and voiced
Wood Sprite and
Death in the animated film ''
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio''. Also that year she played dual roles of mother and daughter in
Joanna Hogg's gothic drama
The Eternal Daughter (2022).
Richard Brody of
The New Yorker praised Swinton's performance describing the acting feat as a "tour de force". The following year, she reunited with Wes Anderson for the film
Asteroid City (2023). Swinton starred in
Julio Torres's
surrealist A24 comedy
Problemista and
David Fincher's action thriller
The Killer both released in 2023. In 2024 Swinton had a cameo in the
Amazon Prime series
The Boys, in which she voiced Ambrosius, the Deep's octopus lover. Also In 2024, Swinton starred opposite Julianne Moore in Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language drama ‘’
The Room Next Door’’. The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, and received widespread acclaim for the performances of its two leads. For her role, Swinton earned a nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards. In May 2025, she collaborated with the champagne brand
Dom Pérignon for a campaign named "Creation is an Eternal Journey." She played alongside
Colin Farrell in
Edward Berger's 2025 movie
Ballad of a Small Player. Swinton is a signatory of the
Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025. In 2025, together with Olivier Saillard, she co-created a spectacle
Embodying Passolini, in which she used costumes from
Pier Paolo Pasolini films. ==Personal life==