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In The Room Next Door, writer-director Pedro Almodóvar builds upon his feminocentric repertoire with some beautiful performances from Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.
As the trio appeared on a panel Saturday at Deadline’s Contenders Film event, the actresses opened up about working with the acclaimed filmmaker on the Golden Lion-winning film that centers a years-long female friendship.
“It’s wonderful. He really honors the female experience,” said Moore. “I think it’s something that he talks about, sitting under the kitchen table when his mother was talking to her friends and absorbing those stories and how powerful they were, and understanding that point of view. I think he’s always in that feminine point of view. Like I said, he honors that world. You feel very, very seen as an actor when you work with Pedro.”
Based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 book What Are You Going Through, The Room Next Door stars Moore and Swinton as Ingrid and Martha, two women who reconnect under extreme circumstances years after they became close friends while working at the same magazine.
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For Swinton, she relishes the rare opportunity to dive into such a dynamic film with two fully-formed leading characters that happen to be women.
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“What happened, Hollywood? Come on,” Swinton quipped. “We know, not only people of the female persuasion know, that we exist and our stories are pretty interesting, and we’re all here to make them. And there have been women making films in Hollywood since Lois Weber in the early part of the 20th century. There’s no shortage of women to make these films, and there’s certainly no shortage of women to play them. It seems a complete no-brainer to me.”
In their first film together — which premieres Christmas Day in limited theaters before expanding nationwide in January — Swinton and Moore have opted to both be equally considered the leading star ahead of awards season.
Almodóvar was certainly in awe of their performances, raving that he “was very lucky to work with them” on his first English-language feature, adding, “I’m a very dull or heady director. I say to the actors many, many, many things, and what I learned about these two is that perhaps I don’t need to say so much information to the actors.”
“There was one very important [scene of Moore reading] the letter at the end,” he recalled. “For me, it was very important. I was almost crying when I talked to her and I said, ‘Well, Julianne, this is what I want for this letter.’ [She] said, ‘Pedro, please let me do it, and after that, you give me all the indications.’ And she was right. When she just read it, I mean, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t intervene, but it was more than perfect. So I learned by then that perhaps I don’t need to tell them so many things to the actors.”
Check back on Monday for the panel video.
The presenting sponsor for this year’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles is United for Business. Sponsors are Eyeptizer Eyewear, Final Draft + ScreenCraft, and partners are Four Seasons Maui, 11 Ravens and Robina Benson Design House.
