Tilda Swinton and Zoë Kravitz Put the Fizz in Dom Pérignon Party

How does a star decide to collaborate with a famous brand? Is the “yes” rooted in how large or small their role will be, the size of the paycheck or how dazzled they might be by the brand’s reputation?

For Tilda Swinton, it’s about ensuring the experience feeds her limitless curiosity, which she says informs and determines every project. “It feels very natural to me and, in a way, very much a similar formula [to signing on for a film],” Swinton told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview on Friday in London. “There’s no difference between this and getting into a conversation with [writer-director] Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a long-gestating conversation that after 17 years ended up in a movie called Memoria. In life you encounter people that you have inspiring and slightly unfinished conversations with, those conversations keep going, and you just want to be with them.”

The Oscar winner’s latest conversations have taken place with Vincent Chaperon and Jacques Giraco, respectively the Chef de Cave (head winemaker) and managing director of Dom Pérignon, the legendary champagne brand owned by LVMH. The pair asked Swinton to be one of seven creatives — which also include Zoë Kravitz, Anderson .Paak, Iggy Pop, Takashi Murakami, chef Clare Smyth, and dancer/choreographer Alexander Ekman — to appear in Dom Pérignon’s latest campaign, christened “Creation is an Eternal Journey.”

“The very sharp end of Dom Pérignon is Vincent and Jacques,” Swinton says. “I’ve worked in this way with designers, the way I would work with Chanel or with Haider Ackermann. It’s the same kind of conversation: How do we make this thing — film, dress, champagne — how do we make this thing elicit a kind of response, how do we make this thing inspire a kind of feeling, and how do we make this thing indicate an attitude in us, as creators?”

Kravitz said she was drawn to the history of Dom Pérignon, which takes its name from the 17th-century French Benedictine monk who was instrumental in the development of sparkling wine, and whose historic abbey is today owned by the brand. “I also really loved that this project was about creation as a whole and finding this really thoughtful collection of creatives,” she explained to THR. “It was such an eclectic group, so it was an honor and a no-brainer for me.”

Both Swinton and Kravitz say they signed on to participate in “Creation is an Eternal Journey” largely because they appreciate being part of this “assemblage,” a word that also applies to the blend of wines and grape varieties to create champagne. “It’s a very beautiful manifestation of that idea,” said Swinton, who traveled to Hautvillers in France’s Champagne region to meet with the Dom Pérignon team and do a deep dive in the winemaking process. “[The creatives] are quite symbiotically sympathetic, and it’s an amazing honor to be in that group. What I immediately discovered is that everything is thoughtful in this house. They have the time and the resources to take their time and be precise, and that’s so refreshing.”

The just-released campaign, lensed by American photographer Collier Schorr, is a blend of portraits of each creative, both with and without a bottle of Dom Pérignon, and a short film in which the stars offer their thoughts on champagne and the creative experience. “Creation can change history,” Murakami says in the film, while Iggy Pop notes, “Creation is a big love.” Swinton’s final moments include reaching for the sky and saying, “It’s like touching the stars,” a phrase meant to evoke thoughts of the effect known as “champagne flow,” which occurs when gases explode in a vacuum in space and resemble bursting champagne bubbles after a bottle has been uncorked.

“We wanted to gather creators who represented different facets of culture: artists, musicians, a chef — all complimentary, yet also diverse,” says Giraco. “It was all very organic, but what they also had in common is that they all wanted to meet Vincent, and I was really impressed by that, and super impressed to see they were all so interested.”

“Creation is an Eternal Journey” also coincides with the release of four new vintages — including a 2018 vintage that represents Chaperon’s first since being named Chef de Cave in 2019 — all celebrated in a collective event dubbed “Révélations,” which included a three-day exhibition and splashy opening-night party at London’s Tate Modern museum. In addition to the stars of the campaign, attendees included Damien Lewis, Emma Corrin, Alicia Vikander, Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and famed milliner Stephen Jones. Swinton kicked off the evening’s entertainment by reading an original poem, a series of connected thoughts that included “Champion human fragility” and “Defy unkindness.”

Then it was Anderson .Paak’s turn, kicking the party into high gear as the evening’s DJ. Swinton and Kravitz danced nonstop, while Corrin tucked into a quiet corner with friends and Lewis, with girlfriend Alison Mosshart, lead singer of The Kills, toured the exhibition, though it wasn’t long before Mosshart and Iggy Pop struck up a conversation — perhaps to discuss their next music project? Every star, meanwhile, concurred that champagne is synonymous with celebration, while also sharing the memory of their first glass. “Maybe my high-school graduation,” recalls actor-director Kravitz, whose father is famed singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz. “My dad loves champagne, and he’s had a relationship with Dom for a while, so that was probably the first time he said to me, ‘This is a big day, you can have a glass of champagne.’”

Swinton’s response: “I love it. I know my first memories of champagne are bordering on sort of child abuse,” she said. “I remember being at weddings as a child — and of course you’re kept out of the way at weddings while very young — and you see all these glasses of champagne on the table. My nanny, however, seemed to believe that if you put a cube of sugar in a glass of champagne, it made it child-friendly. But that’s just a champagne cocktail, isn’t it? But she said, ‘Let me go and get the sugar, and then it will be alright for you,’ because she believed the sugar made it into a fizzy pop. So we were clearly completely bombed at the ages of five, six, seven or eight.”

Today Swinton is amused by the memory, while her recent education at Hautvillers and participation in the campaign resulted in an experience she clearly treasures. “When you go to the abbey, you can feel it, there is the sense of miracle about it,” Swinton says. “That’s why all the vernacular in our little film works — in other circumstances, it might be difficult to say something like ‘It’s like touching the stars,” but here it’s not a stretch. It really is something else.”