Was Tilda Swinton a bad seed? The Oscar-winning actress, 50, reveals a deep, very dark childhood secret: She nearly murdered her youngest brother as a child.
The We Need to About Kevin star told the shocking story to England’s The Telegraph magazine.
Recalling the brutal 1993 murder of 2-year-old British boy James Bulger, Swinton said: “Years ago, when James Bulger was murdered, every newspaper front page was talking about evil. At that point, having suppressed it for years, I remembered when I was four or five, I tried to kill my own brother.”
Explained the British star: “He was newly born and I was disappointed, because he was the third boy. That was enough as far as I was concerned.”
But, thankfully, the Michael Clayton actress had a change of heart when visiting her baby brother’s nursery. “I went into his room to kill him, saw some ribbons from a bonnet going into his mouth, and began to pull them out,” Swinton recalled. “And I was discovered saving his life. So I had this strange reputation – my brother’s savior – and no one knew I wanted to kill him. It took the Bulger case for me to remember that I’d seriously wanted to.”
Partners since 2004, Swinton and Scottish painter John Byrne are parents to 13-year-old twins, son Xavier and daughter Honor.
The topic of child evil has been on Swinton’s mind as she promotes new flick We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which she plays the mother of a boy who commits mass murder.
“It’s everybody’s nightmare that, when they’re pregnant, they’re going to give birth to the devil,” she has said. “That when they bring up children, especially a boy, they’re going to give birth to this violence.”
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