Pedro Almodóvar has argued that euthanasia should be available “all over the world”, saying: “It should be regulated and a doctor should be allowed to help his patient.”
The Spanish director, 74, was speaking at a Venice Film Festival press conference today (September 2) for his first feature-length English-language film, The Room Next Door.
The movie stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as a pair of women who were friends in their youth. They meet again in later life when Swinton’s character is diagnosed with a terminal illness and faces her mortality.
“This movie is in favor of euthanasia,” said Almodóvar, as Variety reports. “It is something we admire about the character of Tilda, she decides that getting rid of cancer can only be done by making the decision she actually makes. ‘If I get there before, cancer will not win over me,’ she says.
“And so she finds a way to reach her objective with the help of her friend, but they have to behave as if they were criminals.”
Spain legalized euthanasia in 2021, and the Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown director said he believes other countries should do the same.
“There should be the possibility to have euthanasia all over the world,” he said. “It should be regulated and a doctor should be allowed to help his patient.”
At the same press conference, Swinton said that she “can’t say I wouldn’t act in exactly the same way” as her character.
“I personally am not frightened of death, nor have I ever been,” said the Oscar-winning Michael Clayton star. “I think the whole journey toward accepting death can be long for some people, but for some reason, because of certain experiences in my life, I became aware early.
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“I know it’s coming. I feel it coming, I see it coming. One of the things that this film is a portrait of is self-determination, someone who decides absolutely to take her life and her living and her dying into her own hands.”
The Room Next Door received a 17-minute standing ovation after its premiere, the longest of this year’s Venice Film Festival so far.
The film is set to arrive in cinemas from December 20.
Last year, Almodóvar revealed why he decided to pass on Brokeback Mountain nearly 20 years ago.
“It was the first time that I really thought about making a movie in English because I loved that story – I knew the [book] by Annie Proulx and I loved it, and the script of Larry McMurtry was very good too. But the thing is, I was insecure with my English,” he explained.