Actress Hilary Swank says Hollywood was “more patriarchal than ever” when she first started acting. “I just don’t like being told how to be feminine,” the Million Dollar Baby star said.
“Thankfully, it’s becoming more inclusive. But when I started, it was more patriarchal than ever,” Swank told Women’s Health of Hollywood.
The P.S. I Love You star added that the entertainment industry did not have a variety of role choices when she first set out to establish herself as an actress, and that she would often agree to playing characters that did not align with hew point of view.
“And so I was playing roles that were written by men from what a female point of view is, and it wasn’t necessarily true,” Swank said, adding, “It’s not that I don’t like being feminine — I just don’t like being told how to be feminine.”
But Swank appeared to have since figured things out, as the actress now has an estimated net worth of $70 million and is a two-time Oscar winner for her roles in the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry and the 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby.
In Boys Don’t Cry, Swank played a transgender teen living in rural Nebraska. In Million Dollar Baby, the actress portrayed an aspiring boxer being trained by an older coach, played by legendary Hollywood star Clint Eastwood.
After being asked by Women’s Health what she would tell her younger self, Swank replied, “I probably would say, ‘Take a breath for a second.'”
After her two Oscar wins, Swank went on to appear in films including You’re Not You, Logan Lucky, 55 Steps, What They Had, and Ordinary Angels, among others. Her casting credits also include television shows like Alaska Daily, Away, and Trust.
Now, Swank is bringing the “complexity” she has been craving in a character through her role as Melissa in the third season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets series, the magazine noted.
“I like to be part of projects where you either relate to somebody or you learn from somebody, or you’re just flat-out entertained. And sometimes the best case is when it’s all three,” Swank told Women’s Health.
The actress added that she and her Yellowjackets co-star, Melanie Lynskey, “have some scenes that are so juicy and so loaded and so full.”
“It’s fun to have that as an actor with another actress like that, to get in there and get in that sandbox and really play,” she said.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
