Hilary Swank is opening up about the challenges she faced as a young actress in Hollywood, a male-dominated industry. In a recent interview with Women’s Health, the two-time Academy Award winner shared how difficult it was to find her place in the film world when she first began acting.
“When I started, Hollywood was more patriarchal than ever,” Swank said. She explained that early in her career, she often played roles written by men, which were shaped by their views on what it meant to be a woman. “I was playing roles that were written by men from what a female point of view is, and it wasn’t necessarily true,” she added.
Swank clarified that she doesn’t oppose femininity itself but expressed frustration with how it was often dictated. “It’s not that I don’t like being feminine,” she said. “I just don’t like being told how to be feminine.”
Known for her roles in Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Swank earned her first Oscar for portraying a transgender teen in Boys Don’t Cry and her second for playing an up-and-coming boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Reflecting on winning her first Academy Award at just 25, Swank said it felt like “I was shot out of a cannon.”
Looking back, she offered advice to her younger self: “Take a breath for a second,” she said. “I’d tell myself to really think about the choices I’m making every day. The only control we have is the choices we make — my time is my life.”
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