Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and producer. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Actress.
One of the great things about my job is I get to do all of these things that I may not experience had I not been an actor.
I bring my dogs on set with me, and my little dog Karoo is smart as a whip. She knows where the craft-services food tables are, so anytime I can't find her, I know she has found her way to that area. She's a funny dog.
My male counterpart will get paid ten times more than me -- ten times. Not double, but ten times for the same job. We only have this much left for the female actress. I mean, there’s two genders on this earth. Both are compelling, interesting, diverse, wonderful in all their own separate ways. And yet there’s an influx of male roles, and there's just not for women.
Few people know this about me, but I love baking pies.
My most annoying question is 'Hilary, are you ever going to play a pretty girl?'
I think that we're all continually searching for who we are, and that's ever-evolving and changing.
This is my one and only life and it's a great and terrible and short and endless thing and none of us come out of it alive.
The idea of playing a character for even two years, to me feels claustrophobic - only because I want to play a lot of different people.
I'm always looking for opportunities, even when they're not offered to me. I will have no hesitation to pick up the phone and call a director or call a writer.
When I was a swimmer and I would lose a heat in something I was doing whether it backstroke or breaststroke, were two of my most strongest strokes, I would look at how whoever it was that won and beat me and think, "What did they do? What were. . . What were the qualities that they had that I can incorporate into my swimming to make me better?"
Oh, the Places You'll Go!,' by Dr. Seuss, is still one of my favorite books ever.
You only have one life and if you're not doing what you love, what's the point?
I look at some of my work and say, "Oh, that's where I can be better. " I want to continue to grow and do things that do scare me. I want to work with filmmakers who will help me go deeper in my work.
All you have to remember is 'audition' is synonymous with 'opportunity. I mean, if you absolutely hate auditioning, do you also hate opportunities? That wouldn't make much sense.
What I love about making movies is that it's a collaboration. It's one of the most rewarding things, to create something and have someone show you something that you didn't see, and vice versa.
I feel like I've had a really great intense relationship with every single Director I've ever worked with. I can't say there's one that hasn't been deep and profound in its own way.
I think what's great about that relationship between an actor and a Director is you have to really blow away all your thing, the safety things that you put up.
I had to fight my whole life to break out of my circumstances. That's just part of my makeup.
I really enjoy playing with someone else and whether it's chess or tennis or games, I love card games. I love that, but I think there's something so important to gain from winning and losing and learning how to lose and how you can be better from that.
You can change your fate. You can sit back, or you can go after your life and all that you want it to be.