Tilda Swinton

Even after winning an Oscar for her icy portrayal of an ethically challenged lawyer in Michael Clayton, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton has remained true to her fiercely independent nature by challenging herself with psychologically complicated and morally ambiguous roles. Swinton's acting career began when British filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman cast her in the highly stylized Caravaggio as Lena, an artistic muse who eventually became the Italian painter's downfall, and gained momentum with a career-defining performance as a perpetually young nobleman (and woman) in 1992's Orlando. Since then, Swinton's striking androgynous features and minimal acting style have often juxtaposed the emotionally charged characters she inhabits; in The Deep End, she brought a subtle noir intensity to an overprotective mother, while her role as stolen housewife Emma Recchi in I Am Love is a painful study in sublimated desire. Equally comfortable as an unhinged, middle-aged alcoholic (Julia) or an evil fairytale queen (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), Swinton's shape-shifting versatility extends beyond film; she's collaborated on collections with avant-garde fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, slept in a glass case as part of a performance art installation, and put together a traveling film festival in the Scottish Highlands. Swinton's piercing intelligence, quiet authority, and innate curiosity about the lives of others make her work powerful, haunting, and fascinating.