Hilary Swank - Academy Award Winning Actor The 100 Women Interviews

Now BBC News, the latest in our series of interviews with

influential women. Talking to Hilary Swank.

Welcome to this special 100 women interview. Hilary Swank is a two

time Oscar-winning actress who has taken on some of Hollywood's

wittiest roles. She comes from humble beginnings, she travelled in

a trailer park and lived out of a car until she got her a break. Now

she is as much as an advocate as she is an actress, campaigning for

transgender rights and working with military families. On this special,

I will be talking to Hilary Swank about her rise to the top and what

it is like to be a woman in Hollywood.

Hilary Swank, thank you for joining us on the BBC. It is an honour,

thanks for having me. I do not know what I did in this life to deserve

all of this, I am just a girl from a trailer park. That is part of your

speech when you access to the Oscar for $1 million baby. Tell about your

early days. Like you said, I grew up from humble beginnings. I did not

recognise that was something people looked down upon, the trailer park

world. I had food and yet I was treated a certain way and I remember

classes. I felt more like an outsider than I ever had before. I

read characters in books and movies like elephant man or the wizard of

Oz, and those books make me feel like I had someone I could relate

to, somebody experiencing life in a way I understood. That is what

propelled me. One of the things that maybe want to be an actor was to

learn things about people in different areas of life and how we

are connected and how we are different, to find more meaning

through those stories. What is the biggest lesson you wrote about

classes as a child? At a time I did not understand it. I did not know

why it I could stay at my friend's house. Did people effectively

discriminate against you? Absolutely. I was playing on the

other side of the track. Their parents would say, no, you need to

go home. I did not understand, I did not know what was happening. I told

my mum what was happening and why did I have to go home and why would

they play with me and she did her best at answering, saying everybody

has a point of view and it is our job to keep living your life. That

is a big part of what made me who I am today. At the time even though it

was hard, I am grateful for it. You mentioned your mother, she has been

a huge inspiration, you have said that before. Tell us about your mum?

My mum gave up her dream at such a young age, to be a dancer, that is

right. She was an incredible dancer, but she was also an athlete and she

took part in community sports. Which, by the way, made a

significant impact on me. It did teach girls how to have a healthy

relationship, to work together, how to support each other's strengths,

how to encourage others. It meet the belief in myself and it made me want

to work harder and want to persevere. At 40, 41, I can

recognise that is probably the biggest gift I will ever be given.

At the time I do not know if I recognised it. Hindsight is 2020. It

is at the age of 20 that your parents split up. A little bit

before that. How did that affect you? I understood in a profound way

that that was for the best. A lot of kids get something from that, but I

think I understood that both of them would be better going their separate

ways. Everybody deserves happiness. After you have tried hard to make

something work, let us find that so everyone can be happy. So then your

mum and you got in a car with $75 and drove to Los Angeles? How long

does that take? 19 hours. What was going through your mind? I was on

cloud nine. I was so excited. My mother had to make a decision about

what she wanted. She said, we are going to do this, we are going to

move to Los Angeles. I said, that is great. We had $75 to our name. I was

embarking on the biggest dream. My mum literally stood at payphones

with quarters, calling agents, saying you should see my daughter. I

have such an insurmountable amount of gratitude for her. At the time,

it is so easy to take for granted. Now I am leaving my dream and I

continue to be living my dream. I am just eternally grateful. When she

said, let us get in the car, we are moving to Hollywood, how confident

that you feel about the whole thing? It is not something that most people

who drive to the city with $75, they do not end up winning two Oscars. I

do not think I thought... I have never been one to live in a fearful

mind. I thought it was a great adventure. I am an adventurous

person and I like to challenge myself. I had my mum, who had my

back. With that, she gave me, allowed me to spread my wings and

fly. She took a lot of that pressure off of me. Then she got a job and I

started doing odds and ends. We rented from a single mother and

lived for a year with them. As we continued, she continued to work and

I continue to get more jobs, we rented a house. I turned 18, which

was my big break. I moved to Boston to film. Los Angeles is a city where

so many people come and not everyone makes that dream. You live here now.

When you look around, you meet the waiter who wants to be an actor. How

does it feel? Absolutely, I was travelling and they came through

customs. Customs officer said, I am an actor and you remind me to follow

my dreams. Some help I am some type of, the catalyst to inspire him to

never give up. It is always shocking to me. But it is a great honour to

be in that position and it is just a reminder to be of hellfire we have

come and how lucky I am. -- like hell fire. But as talk about some of

your acting roles. You started out in 'Beverly Hills, 90210'. The part

was written out quite quickly. After the 11th episode I was fired. It is

a big blow. Especially when our, I started my career in comedy. I was

trying to do drama and then I get fired. It was not really a

was, it was even more devastating. I just thought, I am not good enough

for 9210. It is such an important reminder

reason. You have to try and look for the bright side of things. I would

never have been able to do that movie. Let us talk about boys don't

cry, your breakthrough film. You played a very interesting character,

a 2-storey. Who was born in the same hospital I was born in. She was .2

years performing. That is unbelievable. Were you aware of

this? I was not aware of this. I did not know at the time.

catalyst for raising awareness of the very important issues

surrounding gay, lesbian, transgendered, questioning,

bisexual. -- transgendered. People come to me and say that movie was

the, it was, movie that transcends gender in a

lot of ways. It is about love and it is a reminder that nobody can tell

you who to love. That is our birthright. It is interesting to

have people who had negative thoughts about gay and lesbians and

said, you are straight and you look at the story in a different way,

just to think of the importance of that, I have no idea. Because it was

such a powerful role, how do you prepare for that? You have talked

about physical preparation, but also the emotional preparation. The

hardest thing is understanding that this is happening to people, that it

was a true story. When you are in the middle of doing that, it is such

an challenging and difficult story and going through scenes that are

harrowing, you cannot say, this did not happen, it is just a story, it

is just fiction, it happened. It does happen. You need to almost, it

is impossible to, it makes you have to do something about it. You have

to stand up, you have to help. After that movie, I became the

spokesperson for an institute for ten years. How rewarding was that

experience? It is an honour to be a voice for those youth. While I was

in that space, I helped them open and accredited high school. There

was a lot of debate surrounding it. Being a voice for them was really,

like I said, how I took the feelings that came up from me in doing that

movie and wanting to take a stand. Let us move to the other role that

when you an Oscar, the thing -- female boxer in million dollar baby.

How do you prepare for that? That not being with a true story yet

it was with the esteemed Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. I just

thought these two in another league from me. I thought, how do I step up

to the plate and play with them? I thought, I have to be as believable

as possible as an boxer. So, I trained five hours a day, six days a

week for three months before we filmed. Great trainers and teachers

and people that helped me tremendously. Doing something that

pushes yourself to your limit makes you recognise your biggest obstacle

is yourself. We get in the way of ourselves all the time. The second

that I found myself stumped, I recognised it was my mind saying I

couldn't do it. Can you still do a right hook? I remember, thinking in

the beginning, three-minute round? It was the hardest thing I have ever

done. The important thing is how to gauge your opponent. It is a real

chest match. There were reports you almost died from a potentially fatal

blood poisoning through the training. Is it true? It is true. I

had staph on my foot because I had a blister the size of my palm on the

bottom of my foot from pivoting and I took it on myself to pop it

because I couldn't train with it and got an infection. I had no idea that

it was staph. I was in a lot of pain. That was near death. How did

you recover? The thing is, when you get staph you can see the line going

up your body because it goes to your heart. If it goes to your heart it

is fatal. It was on my foot and it reached the low by knee. You were

OK. I went to the doctors, the hospital, and got treated.

Interesting about that role, it is a woman trying to make it in a man's

world. I wanted to ask what you think about the debate in Hollywood

about the amount that women earn compared with your male

counterparts. Do you feel you have been paid significantly less than

male co-stars? Absolutely, hands down. Sometimes, you know, it is

greatly shocking when you hear, you know, here is the role, they have

cast the guy and here is the offer, and you ask, really? They say, there

is nothing more. And you know what they are paid and they got the money

first. Usually they cast men first. Then they go to see how much they

have for the female. And it is astonishing. How do you fix it?

Again, continuing to talk about it. People talk about it more and more.

That will always make change, hopefully. It will be a fight. I

think we can persevere. What role would you like to play next? I would

like to do an action movie. Really? Yeah. I grew up an athlete, as we

talked about. I love being physical. I love action films. I think it

would be really fun to do a female Bourne or something. What about the

Bond girl? We were talking about that earlier today. I said, isn't it

strange there was a rumour and no one approached me about it. I think

it would be super fund. The Bond is what we were talking about before,

the powerful man and psychic woman -- fun. She is a fun psychic woman.

No? Does she have a powerful role. She is subservient to the man. Maybe

we can make her a kick but Bond girl who can walk shoulder to shoulder

with Bond. What do you think? Definitely. Film critic Roger Ebert

said you are in actors who doesn't fit many roles but when she is right

she is right. What would you say to it? Is it a blessing or a curse?

Unfortunately, I think now that he has passed, and it is a great loss,

I have enormous respect for him, but he won't be able to see all of the

choices I make in future. Like Bond girl? I wonder what he would say

choices I make in future. Like Bond girl? I wonder what he would about

that. Moving on to charity work. Tell me about your own charity. I

started that charity this year. That is my name and my late dog's name

put together. The idea is to put children given up on an animals

abandoned together to help heal each other through rescue rehabilitation

training. To see these kids come in who have been completely given up

on, by choice or circumstance, they see these dogs who have, who are in

the same position as them. They have been kicked to the curb like kids

feel they have been. They have an instant bond and connection. I feel

like these dogs really see them and they see the dogs. It is a really

cathartic and healing experience. You have worked on other causes like

helping military families. Absolutely. My dad was in the

military. They are really the unsung heroes. They leave their families,

they have to leave their families for a long time. They fight for all

of us, for all of the world globally. These kids are kind of

left behind. And the single parent as well. Since you mentioned your

data. You have taken time off to help care for him -- dad. He was

suffering from some kind of lung disease? Yes. He was given the

diagnosis of three years to live if he didn't get a lung transplant. He

was very lucky. He got a lung in six weeks. He just waited six weeks. It

takes an entire year to see if the organ will actually take. It has

been really touch and go and it has been a difficult journey for my dad.

He is OK? He is. Three weeks ago he rounded a corner for the better. I

am so grateful to the doctors. It has been a blessing to be in a

position to be able to help him in his journey and in his recovery.

Taking a year off for some might seem as career suicide. You know

what, for me there is no question that I would take error of my dad

and that I would help him. It was a no-brainer. I never once thought,

and I going to work again? Maybe that is naive. I just thought, that

is what family does for one another. That is what you do for someone in

that position. Like I said, I feel blessed that I could do that. People

might not be in that position to do that, in a great time of need. And

my parents would do exactly the same for me. And so anyway, I am starting

to look again. It has actually been, you know, to step out of

something you love so much gives you even more appreciation for it. It is

the old adage, if you walk away, and you miss it and long for it. I think

I will step back into it with a whole new passion and respect. As

part of the 100 Women series, we are asking interviewees to nominate a

woman who has inspired them. Who would you nominate? I would like to

nominate Erin Grewal. She is an extraordinary woman who I have the

honour of playing in the film Freedom Writers -- Gruwell. Talk

about instilling belief in hundreds of thousands at risk youth. Kids who

would never have believed in themselves without her believing in

them first. I feel like teachers, talk about unsung heroes. They get

paid the least amount and they have the most important job. A teacher

can literally affect your life for the good or for the bad. You know,

of course education is important, but the idea that a teacher can make

you see and think bigger and inspire you to be greater self, and Erin

took these kids, most of them were gang members who had been shot at or

try to shoot at somebody. None of them had any desire, let alone they

-- thought that they would graduate high school. A lot of them were the

first in their family to graduate high school. They went on to

college. They are now working with her and the foundation. They need

someone who believed in them who said that they are worth it. That

they are worth it. To me, she has inspired me with my foundation. The

idea to give kids hope who don't have any. It is I think one of the

most important things we can do. That was an inspirational way to end

this interview. Thank you very much for being one of our 100 Women

A fairly chilly weekend coming up, with blustery winds.