Hilary Swank Interview (page: 8 / 8) Two Oscars for Best Actress	Print Interview

Tell us about your role in Freedom Writers. That's one that also garnered a great deal of acclaim.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Hilary Swank: Freedom Writers was one of those movies that you read, and I didn't know that this was a true story. I'd never read about it. I didn't know anything about it. It was a reminder that the power of someone who can believe in you, the one person, all you need is one person who can believe in you and how that can change your life, how I had that one person and how grateful I am for that one person, and how important it is to have that person, and if you don't have it, to be your own advocate and to believe in yourself. I know that's hard, and to dig that up somewhere when you've had people your whole life say, "You can't. You're not worth it. You? You're never going to amount to anything," which is what these kids had experienced. They had been literally thrown into the trash and told they can't learn, they're never going to amount to anything.

These are people living in the world today. They're told that, because of the color of their skin, because of the amount of money their parents had in their bank account, because they didn't have parents and they were getting into a lot of trouble. It's just a reminder not to judge a book by its cover, not to judge a person by the way they look, how they dress, how they may talk, that they may be trouble-makers, but that they're people with dreams, who deserve just as much as the next person.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Every single one of these kids who had been given up on completely, who had turned, of course, to the gang life -- why wouldn't you if you'd been treated that way? They found a place where they belonged. Of course, they're going to go there. To see every single one of them graduate from high school, when they were the first, many of them, the first in their family to have graduated, they're heroes in my mind. And that they're going out in the world today and talking about their experience and inspiring other kids who are in their same shoes to look within and to fight for themselves and to not become bitter about it, don't become angry about it, just have compassion for the people who look down upon you, because they don't know any better, another moving opportunity for me to learn more about life and to feel connected.

What's next? What would you like to do that you haven't done?

Hilary Swank: Well, I wanted to get back into comedy, and believe it or not, I was told, "But you're a dramatic actress."

You're not a "half-hour" person anymore!

Hilary Swank: Right. So, to bring it full circle, I wanted to start doing comedy again. Richard La Gravenese, who wrote and directed Freedom Writers, wrote and directed a movie called P.S., I Love You, based on the book, and there are a lot of funny, funny moments in that movie. I got an opportunity to do a little bit of both in that movie, and that's coming out this December. It's a Christmas movie, and it's a wonderful love story. It's a great reminder of not taking the people you love for granted, to let them know every day that you love them, that life is short and we only have one life, and to live it to its fullest. It's one of those stories that makes you laugh through your tears.

How do you go about balancing personal life and celebrity and relationship and career? There are similar challenges for all working women, but being in the spotlight must make it even more challenging.

Hilary Swank: I don't know if it's more challenging being in the spotlight. I think it's just a difficult thing in itself, balancing your career and your life and a family. It's a challenge, and I think it's a challenge even more now, because more women are pursuing their dreams and wanting to see their careers realized and putting family on hold for a little while. A lot of people haven't done that before us. So we're kind of leading the way. We have to look to each other and be a support for each other as we find our way to find that balance. It is a balance. It's difficult.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. It's difficult to be given an opportunity when you've said, "I'm going to take this time off and devote it to seeing my mom again, and my grandfather in Iowa who's been such a believer in me, whose health is failing." And to say, "Do I take this movie? Or do I go and be with my grandfather? Do I take this time?" because it's not just the time of filming the movie. It's the preparation, and then it's the travel afterwards of the press that takes three months of your life, and it's grueling. You travel the world. It's wonderful, but it's also grueling. Finding that balance is a daily -- again -- a daily job of saying, "Today, do I wake up and make the choice to do this movie, knowing what that involves?" Or do I choose to take this time with my family and my friends? Because that's just as an important part of my life as my career.

You have to ask yourself what's right for you, what's important to you. Make that list of priorities, and make sure you stick to them. There are things that I'll be asked to do, and I'll say, "Okay. If I choose to do that, it is going to take me away from my top four priorities. Is this worth it?" I have to evaluate it like that, with every choice that I get. It's a give-and-take. If I want to take away from my top four priorities, I have to see where I can balance that. It's very easy to get a phone call saying you've been asked to do this, that, or the other, and at that point to say yes, and afterwards say, "Oh, that's going to affect all of these other things. I can do that here, but then I can't do this other thing."

You seem like a very kind person, and I imagine your instinct is to say yes, perhaps more than you should.

Hilary Swank: I think so. I feel like I've been blessed, and I don't ever want to take it for granted. If I can say something that affects one person, I want to do that.

Well, that's a great place to end. Thank you for a beautiful interview.

Hilary Swank: Thank you for the wonderful questions. It's great to sit down and talk like this.

The pleasure was ours.

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