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Swinton as 82-year-old psychoanalyst Dr Josef Klemperer Amazon Studios/Youtube
Hoax

Actress Tilda Swinton admits playing 82-year-old man in new film

The oscar-winner used prosthetics and fake body parts to play Dr Josef Klemperer.

BRITISH ACTRESS TILDA Swinton has admitted to playing an 82-year-old man after previously claiming the role was played by a first-time actor.

Her new film, Suspiria, features an 82-year-old psychoanalyst Dr Josef Klemperer, a character both Swinton and director Luca Guadagnino claimed was played by actor Lutz Ebersdorf. 

In an interview with the New York Times, the actress revealed the hoax, saying that first-time actor Ebersdorf was, in fact, oscar-winner Swinton herself. 

Asked by the paper if she was playing the role, Swinton replied: “An unequivocal yes.”

Revealing the deception, Swinton told the paper that she had been waiting to be asked was she actually actor Ebersford, not the character he was supposedly playing.

Curiously, to date, nobody has thought of it.

Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 supernatural horror, centres around an American dance school and also stars Dakota Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Suspiria Premiere - 75th Venice Film Festival 2018 Tilda Swinton Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

Playing Dr. Klemperer, one the film’s main protagonists, meant Swinton spent four hours per day in make-up, had her neck thickened with prosthetics and wore fake genitalia on set. 

Asked by the New York Times why she decided to play the octogenarian, the actress replied: “Undeniably, I would have to say, for the sheer sake of fun above all.

As my grandmother would have it – a motto to live and die by – ‘Dull Not To’.

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