Cannes Buzz Murder Mystery: Does Tilda Swinton Need to Talk or Not?

Actress speaks about her tight-lipped role in the Colombine-esque movie that's making waves at the French film fest

By Jefferson Reid May 13, 2011 5:15 PMTags

Early buzz from the Cannes film festival is clear: Everybody's talking about We Need to Talk About Kevin.

But often silence appears to speak louder than words in Tilda Swinton's dramatic horror show about a bad-seed son and what his evil deeds do to his family.

For her part, Swinton, playing the mum, likes to keep mum:

RELATED: Get all the latest reports from the Cannes Film Festival

"I'm of the mind that cinema went downhill since people started talking in it," Swinton joked dryly at a Cannes press conference. Happily, she doesn't feel that way about interviews, so read on to see what else the Oscar-winner had to say about mothering a son who goes on a Columbine-like murder spree.

"It's like a nightmare scenario, but it's not that far from the everyday experience of being a parent," Swinton told CBS at the Festival in Nice, France.

"It's a bloody business, having a family," said Swinton. "It's certainly a very bloody business being a parent, and it's a really bloody business being a child."

Serious business for sure and, based on early reports, it promises to be a bloody good movie. Or at least a bloody controversial one.