Tilda Swinton inspired by the likes of Patti Smith for A Bigger Splash

Tilda Swinton was inspired by Patti Smith, PJ Harvey and Joan Jett for her 'A Bigger Splash' role.

The 55-year-old actress might have felt the late David Bowie's presence when she was filming the movie, in which she stars as rock star Marianne Lane, but she was more influenced by the trio of stars as the film was intended to be about rockers who "fitted in".

In an interview with website Collider.com, she explained: "We didn't think about specifics. As you say, we wanted to make Marianne Lane someone who you could, 'Yeah, Marianne Lane, whatever happened to her?' That she sort of authentically enough reminds you of that whole era, without being so individual that you missed her.

"We didn't think specifically. Funnily enough, we didn't think specifically of Bowie, but the truth is, if you're going to put on a sequin jumpsuit, anybody who puts on a sequin jumpsuit for the rest of time, is going to be reminiscent of Bowie. But we didn't think particularly of him, we thought of Chrissie Hynde, we thought of Patti, we thought of Joan Jett, we thought of lots of people, PJ Harvey, Peaches. We wanted a kind of rock star who would have fitted in and someone we might have known."

Tilda also felt she connected with her alter-ego because she was like a lot of people she knows and as a rock star, she needed to find a "retreat" to become "centered".

She added: "Very quickly felt very familiar to me, I feel that she was like all sorts of people that I am lucky enough to know, and is at a stage in her life that I know a lot of people come to. Particularly people with that much drama in their life.

"There needs to be a retreat. I think that probably that moment comes for anybody of that age, whether they're house husbands or coal miners, but being a rock star brings with it a particular need for retreat, if you're living in that much spotlight. So, she felt quite centered to me."