Swinton 'glad she wasn't a pretty teen'

Rex Features

Tilda Swinton has claimed that she is glad she wasn't a pretty teenager.

The actress explained that she has always been happy with her appearance, Bang Showbiz reports.

"When I was 9 or 10 I wasn't pretty anymore, which is a big advantage," she said. "It must be a nightmare to be a beautiful teenager. I got this strange kind of androgyny. I was everything girls don't want to be - incredibly tall, incredibly thin, unimpressive. For years it's still been possible to hide as a sexual being."

However, Swinton admitted that she is still "angry" about spending her younger years in a boarding school because she had no access to pop culture.

"Being kept away from pop music as a teenager is to be kept away from your generation and even to be kept away in some way from sex," she added. "As a teenager it is very important to be linked with the sexual impulses of popular music.

"Somehow I managed to get through this school and got a different kind of identity."