Cannes - Mothers are made to feel like failures because of the way childbirth is romanticised on television and in films, according to actress Tilda Swinton.
The star warned that glamorous portrayals of motherhood place unrealistic expectations on women and gloss over the “murderous” and “violent” reality of labour.
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, the 50-year-old said: “In the movies where people have babies and particularly [in] television films, they are sitting in a hospital bed with flowers everywhere, beautifully made up, they have a baby in their arms and it is all very lovely.
“Anyone who has been in that zone will know it’s a total fiction. It’s a truly, truly murderous business. Giving birth is a violent [thing to go through]. It is a bloody business having a family.”
She added that many women did not feel an automatic bond with their children and often found it a struggle to adapt.
Swinton stars in the new film adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s book We Need To Talk About Kevin, which describes one woman’s battle to bond with her son and cope with his increasingly depraved behaviour.
Directed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, with John C Reilly as the naive husband and 18-year-old Ezra Miller as the murderous son, the film is tipped for success in the prestigious Palme d’Or award.
Miss Swinton also has twin teenage sons with her former partner, playwright and artist John Byrne.
She met her current lover, German artist Sandro Kopp, who is 17 years her junior, on the set of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Miss Swinton starred as the White Witch and Kopp was an extra.
When discussing Kopp and Byrne in a 2008 interview, Miss Swinton said: “We are all a family.” - Daily Mail