In Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film Poor Things, Kathryn Hunter takes on the role of Swiney, a tattooed madame at the brothel where Emma Stone’s Bella, whom Hunter describes as “completely free and uninhibited,” eventually works. Hunter, a stage legend whose recent onscreen roles include the witches in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Eedy Karn in Disney+’s Andor, spoke at the Poor Things premiere about the four-hour tattoo application process needed to create Swiney’s distinct look.
“We did a tryout in the makeup room and they said, ‘Just have a shower, it’ll come off.’ So I had a shower. It didn’t come off. I had a shower the next day. It didn’t come off,” she said of the allegedly temporary tattoos. “And then I was going to hot yoga, so I’m there in my shorts and I can see the people looking at me going, Um, this older woman has some really cool tattoos. They survived one or two hot yogas. However, three days later when they finally did come off, they went, Where have they gone?”
But Hunter says despite the attention at hot yoga, she didn’t mind her tats sticking around for longer than expected. “I’m getting on. I would never have thought to have tattoos, but if they [didn’t] go, I’d be quite happy,” she said, noting that her favorite of the bunch was a chest piece of a girl riding an elephant.
The tattoos, along with her character’s distinct makeup, lent themselves to her characterization of the grizzled madame. “There’s something about the character, you know, she’s been a sex worker herself obviously, she’s been through the mill, and it felt like a crust of protection, of experience. It’s so wonderful when costume and makeup can work [toward] creating a character.” Hunter’s ink moves from the yoga studio to the big screen when Poor Things premieres December 8.
