Hillary Swank
During <b>the first</b> five or six years of Hilary Swank's acting career, she laboriously played the almost forgotten dragon suit role in front of television and screen, and her performance was quite ordinary.
Hillary Swank played "Male" Number One in Don't Cry boys
Until 1999, she won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress by starring in the biographical film "Boys Don't Cry", which broke into the first line of the Hollywood lineup.
Swank's latest film, What They Had, is the first film by screenwriter and director Elizabeth Chomko, based on real events from her personal life.
The story revolves around Bridget Ertz (Swank). As their mother's condition rapidly deteriorates, Bridget and her brother Nicky (Michael Shannon) must band together to convince their father, Bert (Robert Foster), to send Ruth to a nursing home, and eventually confront his father with the reality that their lifelong relationship ends.
Recently, Time.com had the opportunity to meet Swank in Los Angeles and talk to her about her performance in the film and her experiences of taking a leave of absence from her acting career to take care of her sick father, settling in and finding happiness in her personal life, among others. An excerpt from the dialogue is as follows:
<b>Mtime: This is Elizabeth Chomko's first film, based on her relationship with her parents. What sparked your interest in her own story that led you to join the film and go on a very intense personal journey with her?</b>
SWANK: Well, I'm glad I've had a lot of opportunities to work with first-time filmmakers, and it feels really good to see them put their ideas on the screen, and I'm happy to trust the people who need that opportunity. I was also alone, and I needed someone to believe in me and give me my first chance, so that was something that really resonated with me. Elizabeth is articulate and very clever.
I spent three years caring for my father who underwent a lung transplant, so her own unique story also resonated with me, and I think we all have people in our lives who are battling the disease. So, how that person's family handles, spends, and walks out of this really highlights your strengths and weaknesses. So I have something to do with these things. It was exciting to be able to get on board and help her bring her story to the screen — it resonated so much that I also made the film, helped her get funding, and so on.
<b>Mtime: In what ways did taking care of your father give you a different perspective, or did it change you? </b>
<b>Swank:</b> I've been acting since I was 15 years old, so acting has always been with me in my life. I finish at least one film a year. So actually, leaving acting is half scary, half exciting experience. The scary part is how to define you when you're not acting for a living. When asked who you are, you usually say your job before saying "Oh, I'm a woman, I'm a wife or daughter."
Stills from "What Do They Have"
So, when you've defined yourself with a career for so long, it's funny to suddenly stop doing it for a while. I knew I was going back to show business, but I was far from that because I realized I wasn't just an actor. As an actor or a storyteller, leaving the set I had fought for made me even more grateful to make a movie.
However, I did have a very good opportunity, but when I was invited to make a movie by a good producer, I could only say, "Sorry, I'm busy with other things that require my attention right now." Turning down these opportunities only made me more grateful for my acting career, and working with great people inspired me to be a better actor and a better person.
I think there's a saying I understand: "Stay away from what you like, and you'll reciprocate it with tenfold appreciation and love." So now that I'm back at work, I'm going to love it in a whole new way.
<b>Mtime: The film delves into family, but it also deals with the issue of home and whether a person can actually return to their adolescent home. What is home for you? </b>
<b>Swank:</b> For me, home is where my family really is. It is not a specific place. It is true that my house is my home, but essentially it is where the people and dogs I love are. In a sense, I think that's where your heart is. But now family is more important to me than ever. I believe that in addition to one's own health, home is all one person has. So whether it's difficult or proud, it's very happy to have a family to share it all.
<b>Mtime: You've had a lot of things to share with us lately because in addition to acting and being a film and television producer, you have a new costume line. You recently got married again. How do these new aspects of your life relate to your entertainment career? </b>
Now she has her own clothing brand
<b>Swank:</b> I also have three search and rescue dogs! (Laughs) Well, I'd like to say that I'm really motivated and very ambitious. When I take care of my dad, I find it interesting to have choices in life, right?
For a long time, I had been eager to have my own clothing brand, yet I was always on the set and acting before, and I couldn't really get involved in it. But then I thought, "Wow, I'm sitting in the hospital and my dad is resting, so I can focus on this." "So I was able to turn my creative passion to something new and very different."
Now I have 5 factories in Italy to produce garments and 2 factories in Portugal. We just opened a store last week at Nordstrom , an American department store — and it's very, very exciting. One of the underlying purposes of the brand is to encourage women to make their own mission statements and strive to reach their full potential. So it's a great challenge, very interesting, creative and tough. I just took a crash course in business, which was interesting.
Of course, I'm making (more film and TV) right now because I want to keep telling stories, not just because I'm an actor, but because I love storytelling.
Photo courtesy of Anke Hofmann of the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association
<b>Mtime: To sum up, seeing you so happy, I think, sometimes we are unhappy because we don't pay attention to how happy we are, but see other people doing unpleasant things. Have you ever had a moment like struggling with self-actualization? </b>
<b>SWANK:</b> Yeah, I think there's been more of this now than ever, because we can compare our lives with other people just by going through social media. I think that on social media, most people will choose to share those shinier moments, which makes it easier for us to think, "Oh, my life isn't that good."
But on the other hand, I think social media can bring us together on a larger scale and share our insecurities so we know we're not alone. But I think comparison is one of the most dangerous things, we are very easy to focus on the negative aspects, I think whenever I complain, I have to change my thinking, change the complaint to gratitude. And, once I shifted to an attitude of gratitude, everything became harmonious because we had so much to be thankful for.
For the past 10 years, I've said three things I'm grateful for every day before going to bed. This habit allowed everything to be refocused and reconstructed, and I got a more restful sleep. When I woke up, I was even more grateful, which also started my next day smoothly. I think when we really look around the world and look at what's going on, we have a lot to be thankful for. Like you said, when you ignore this, dangerous negativity begins to breed.