“I have spent much of my life over the last 15 years in the truly honorable, privileged position of being close to people who are at the end of their lives,” said actress Tilda Swinton. “And then to make a film about it is really a blessing upon a blessing.”

Using those experiences helped Swinton earn an acting nomination at Sunday’s Golden Globes. In “The Room Next Door” she portrays a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her character Martha is faced with questions about life. “My first ‘Martha,’ if you will, was Derek Jarman,” she said. The director, artist and gay activist (who played Swinton in her first film, “Caravaggio”) was diagnosed with HIV in 1986.

The Oscar winner praises Jarman for finding a home in cinema and showing her what collaborative filmmaking can be. Before his death in 1994, they made seven feature films together.

She said: “He modeled a kind of attitude towards his descent that I used to the core for myself and that I actually reflected in the portrait of Martha.”

I asked, “Do you think of specific people when you act?”

“Well, a setting that I have seen, that I have witnessed – my parents, the beloved father of my children, John Byrne, who died last year,” she replied. “It was a privilege to sit next to them in the hot seat and watch them face the inevitable with such dignity, humor, wit and just plain power.”

“The Room Next Door” is the first English-language feature film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Swinton’s co-star Julianne Moore is another Oscar winner. “He asked me who I wanted,” Swinton said. “It was her face that I saw at the end of the bed. It was her listening face that I thought was the right face.”

To watch a trailer for “The Room Next Door,” click on the video player below:

Swinton has made more than 80 films and won an Oscar in 2007 for “Michael Clayton.” Nevertheless, large studio productions are the exception, she says. She leans towards independent films and thrives on experimental things.

When asked about the expressiveness of her eyes and how much she can “say” without saying anything, Swinton said: “I think I started with Derek Jarman in silent films. I actually prefer silent films.”

Why? “I loved it at first,” she said. “And then when I started working with Derek, I found my comfort zone in front of a still camera. I think it’s a very rare script that is able to come close to what I’m really interested in, which is inarticulacy. Even now I kind of know what I want to say to you, but I can’t get the words out of my ear and they come out a little wrong.

I asked, “Can you tell with your eyes?”

“That’s what really interests me!” she laughed.

She played a tormented mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin and isn’t exactly cuddly in the Almodòvar film. But just before our interview, as we joked about the amazing boots she was wearing, we caught a glimpse of a different side of Swinton.

I asked, “You’ve done a lot of films, but you can seem so serious… Like that? Not at all. There’s a curiosity and a warmth, and you jump out.”

“I understand the jumping out. I’m a little confused by the seriousness of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m always doing comedy,” she said. “I feel like everything I do is funny. But I think because I’m a shy person and don’t tend to smile with my teeth all over the place, it was assumed that it was more about seriousness than nonsense, but there’s a hell of a lot of nonsense.

“You’re a shy person?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why you chose a tough career!”

“I know! It’s strange, isn’t it? But I think what makes me the most shy is being singled out.”

So when she’s alone on the red carpet, she finds the ensemble approach through fashion. “It’s very playful. My relationship with fashion depends entirely on my relationship with certain people who are my friends, who are among the greatest designers in the world and who give me clothes. And that’s what makes going out in public.” If you’re someone who isn’t an extrovert, it’s not only a lot easier, it’s actually possible.”

When we met in Paris. Swinton had just flown in from a trip to China for Chanel. She wore a military coat: “I first fell in love with my father’s uniforms. My mother always wore a beautiful silk dress, but I was really interested in my father’s uniform.”

Swinton grew up in a noble family in Scotland, the daughter of a military officer. When we met, Swinton was excited to return home to her remote coastal town in Scotland, where she is raising twin boys and has an artist partner, Sandro Kopp, and several springer spaniels.

I asked about descriptions of her as “an icon of androgynous beauty” who naturally exuded “a certain otherworldliness.”

“This otherworldliness actually makes me laugh a little bit,” she said, “because the truth is, I look like the members of my family. I think the otherworldly might have something to do with the fact that I don’t wear mascara and I’m very pale. As my grandmother would say, it would be a boring world if everyone didn’t feel the same.

Swinton is very present, whether in an interview or as an actor. And when navigating Hollywood, those Scottish roots help her find balance.

“Maybe it made me braver,” she said. “Maybe I wouldn’t be able to pack this little bag and engage in worlds very foreign to my homeland if I didn’t know that I was going home to something that felt absolutely real to me.”

WEB EXTRA: Watch an in-depth conversation with Tilda Swinton:

For more information:

• Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, released by Sony Pictures Classics, is now playing in select theaters

The story was produced by Justine Redman and Aria Shavelson. Editor: Ed Givnish.