Swinton's drunk role based on pals

Tilda Swinton tested her acting skills to the limit playing a hard-partying alcoholic in new movie Julia - because she usually falls asleep after a couple of drinks.

Swinton plays an out-of-control drunk in the film, but was worried she would be unable to pull it off convincingly because booze usually leaves her feeling sleepy or sick.

So she studied her own circle of friends to give her inspiration for the part.

Swinton explains, "If I get drunk, I throw up or I go to sleep. But once I started, I realised that I've actually been doing that for years because my friends are drunk and I pretend to be drunk.

"I'm so aware very often when you see alcoholism in films, people tend to emphasise something that I don't really recognise in the alcoholics I know and love, which is a kind of loser quality.

"I don't think of alcoholics as losers, particularly. Alcoholics tend to number the most energetic and fantastic people I know. So I was always thinking it would be nice to look at that kind of portrait."

May 08, 2009
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