A star is born... with a little help from Tilda Swinton (who, it just so happens, is her mum!)
IT is a hard act to follow when your mother is one of the country’s most successful actresses.
So Honor Swinton Byrne was delighted to be cast alongside her Oscar-winning mum for her first feature films.
The 23-year-old, who grew up in Nairn in the Highlands, has spoken movingly about the strong bond she shares with Chronicles of Narnia star Tilda Swinton – and described working together as ‘so much fun.’
The pair played mother and daughter in The Souvenir in 2019 – and again in sequel The Souve
‘It wasn’t awkward or difficult at all’
nir Part 2, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival last week.
Produced by legendary director Martin Scorsese, the movies tell the semi-autobiographical story of a young film student in the 1980s as she embarks on an affair with an older man. Writer and director Joanna Hogg was a childhood friend of Swinton.
Honor, whose father is acclaimed Scottish playwright and artist John Byrne, received critical acclaim for her debut and was named ‘breakout star’ at Sundance Film Festival in 2019.
Speaking at Cannes last week about starring alongside her mother, she said: ‘It wasn’t awkward or difficult at all. The relationship between the two characters is very different to my own one with my mother.
‘We are very affectionate and open with one another and it was very interesting acting out a relationship that is distant – but it was also very fun. There was never a moment it felt unnatural.’
Honor and her twin brother Xavier were given an ‘art-based education’ at Drumduan Upper School in Moray, of which their mother was a founder.
The £7,500-a-year independent school offers academic study through a mixture of physical coordination, athletic skills, music and artistic work.
Honor grew up hoping to become a film director – and said she never expected to be in front of the camera. She said: ‘I wasn’t planning on being an actress. Not at all.
I’m much more comfortable behind a camera.’
Swinton, 60, rarely talks publicly about her children, but said in a recent interview: ‘My children have more to teach me about being relaxed than I can ever teach them.
‘They are very balanced and very easy to be around. We are a close-knit family.’