Tilda Swinton is done with pandemic protocols on film sets…despite months-long COVID

Tilda Swinton is done with COVID-19 masking protocols on film sets, revealing she now refuses to wear a mask on set.

The 62-year-old London native – who was spotted at Paris Fashion Week in January – was featured in a keynote at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas on Monday afternoon.

She started her program at the Austin Convention Center by saying she was so happy the pandemic had progressed enough that everyone in the audience didn’t have to wear a mask.

Her last time at SXSW was nine years ago in 2014, reflecting that she hadn’t seen anyone wearing a mask when she first visited the festival.

“We’ve had different challenges in the last few years in particular, and some of them persist around people’s belief in sitting in large spaces,” Swinton began, before turning to the audience.

‘Look at you. I bet none of you are wearing a mask either. I mean, who knew that was going to be possible? Swinton added.

“There was a time… I mean, in Texas, did people even wear masks? I have to ask,’ Swinton said with a smile, as some in the audience laughed, as she added, ‘I don’t know, it’s a big world and people do things differently everywhere.’

“I’m actually about to start taking a picture in Ireland, and I was told – full disclosure, and I’m sure it’s recorded and people in Ireland could hear it – to wear a mask at all times, and I “I don’t wear a mask because I’m super healthy and I’ve had COVID so many times and I’m so full of antibodies and I have faith,” Swinton said .

She added, “It’s very nice to see all of your faces unmasked, but yeah, a few years ago we couldn’t imagine sitting in a room like this, could we?”

Swinton admitted she wondered “how long it would be” before people could safely congregate indoors again and she was concerned that “those who thought that sitting in a big place to watch a big screen was a bit outdated, would like to gain traction and that would tip it over the edge and people would just forget about the power of the magic carpet.

The actress said this “magical thing happened,” which made many people say one of the biggest things they missed during the pandemic was going to the theater.

She added that she thought it was “the only good thing about the pandemic, that it made people contradict people who said theaters were about to disappear.”

Her comments come just over a year after revealing in an interview with The Guardian that she had been suffering from long-term COVID for months.

She said in August 2021 she couldn’t get out of bed for three weeks after contracting COVID.

“I was coughing like an old gentleman who smoked a pipe for 70 years and got nasty dizziness. I got through it relatively lightly, but the worst part was how it affected my brain,” she admitted.

“I made two films for which I had to learn a lot of texts. One was Wes Anderson and he likes you talking like a bullet train,” Swinton said.

“I’m normally pretty quick at studying and picking things up, but it was like chewing a really big piece of gum. I couldn’t remember my lines,” she admitted.

When asked if she was still dealing with long COVID, Swinton admitted, “More or less, but I still forget things. I have to work my brain.

The actress was at SXSW for the world premiere of her new movie Problemista, where she stars alongside writer-director-star Julio Torres and RZA.

She also has two other films coming in 2023, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, starring Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson, and David Fincher’s The Killer starring Michael Fassbender.

Swinton is also attached to star in the musical The End with George McKay, about the last human family.