Pedro Almodóvar Speaks on His New Film ‘The Room Next Door’ Being in ‘Favor of Euthanasia’: ‘There Should Be the Possibility’ to Do It ‘All Over the World’

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, deals with a controversial topic: euthanasia.

Marking Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door” stars the two Oscar winners as Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton), who were close friends in their youth when they worked at the same magazine. After years of separation, they meet again when Martha is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to take her life into her own hands.

During the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference on Monday, the Spanish auteur spoke passionately about addressing the subject in the film and why he thinks it should be an option for those facing the same fate.

“This movie is in favor of euthanasia,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “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.”

Almodóvar’s home country of Spain legalized euthanasia in 2021, and he believes the rest of the globe should follow suit.

“There should be the possibility to have euthanasia all over the world,” he said to applause from reporters. “It should be regulated and a doctor should be allowed to help his patient.”

Swinton added that she “can’t say I wouldn’t act in exactly the same way” if she were in her character’s shoes.

“I personally am not frightened of death, nor have I ever been. 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. I know it’s coming. I feel it coming, I see it coming,” she said. “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.”

Although the film is clearly about death, Moore and Swinton said it also felt like a celebration of life.

Moore said, “There’s such a tremendous life force in Pedro’s movies, and that’s what we all respond to. It’s almost like, when you’re watching these movies, you can hear everybody’s heartbeat.”

She talked about the movie’s existential themes and said it ponders on the questions, “What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to have a body? What does it mean to have a friend? What does it mean to have a witness?”

Swinton described the movie as a “love story” between her character and Moore’s.

“It’s really a love story between Ingrid and Martha. And when I say love, I mean that really essential thing, that essential friendship that is at the heart of all love, hopefully.”

Moore also discussed the female friendship that is present in the movie, which she felt was “so profound.”

“We very rarely see a story about female friendship, and especially female friends who are older. I don’t know that there’s another filmmaker in the world who would do that other than Pedro,” she said. “The importance that he shows us is so unusual. It was so moving to me that he portrayed this relationship as so profound, because it is.”

She and Swinton also grew close during filming, adding to the film’s authenticity.

“It felt special to us too, to me and Tilda, just day to day,” she said. “How our relationship grew, how we got to know each other, the confidences that we shared, the things that we spoke about. And it wasn’t just about this important stuff, sometimes it’s about shoes, and that’s OK!”

After its Venice premiere, “The Room Next Door” will open in theaters Dec. 20 from Sony Pictures Classics.