Hilary Swank In Amelia
Playing real-life characters is never easy but Hilary Swank is a natural. After making her Oscar-winning breakthrough as the transgendered teen Brandon Teena in 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry, she went on to play teacher Erin Gruwell in 2007’s Freedom Writers.
Now she stars in Amelia, the story of 1930s aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman ever to fly solo across the Atlantic. Directed by Monsoon Wedding’s Mira Nair, the film co-stars Richard Gere as her mercurial husband-cum-promoter George Putnam, who capitalised on his wife’s increasing fame by pushing her into the limelight.
It’s not hard to see why Swank, 35, relates to Earhart. Both from small-town backgrounds Swank was born in Bellingham, Washington they have also tasted fame and acclaim in their lives. In Swank’s case, she won her second Oscar for Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby by the time she was 30.
Having also worked with the likes of Christopher Nolan (Insomnia), Brian De Palma (The Black Dahlia) and Sam Raimi (The Gift), Swank has more than matched her ambitions with a series of critically acclaimed performances. Below she talks about why she loved playing Earhart, how she feels about playing real-life people and her next biopic Betty Ann Waters.
- Do you think Amelia was a very modern woman in some ways?
I think Amelia was ahead of her time. But not only was Amelia ahead of her time in the Thirties. If she was living in 2009, she’d be ahead of her time. Even now, the way she was living then is ahead of how we now live.
And one of the qualities in Amelia that I admire so much is that she made no apologies for living her life the way she wanted. I think that’s hard for women to do, especially in a more male dominated society.
So to have found love, in the way that she found love, and to have been courted for so long and to keep saying ‘I don’t want to be married. It’s not right for me.’ Then finally saying, ‘You know what?
If we do get married, these are the circumstances in which I’m comfortable being married. If you’re not comfortable with that, then fine. We don’t have to make it work.’ And he said, ‘OK. I love you enough to allow you to be you.’
And that’s a great love. To not try and box someone in to your idea or make someone conform to what someone should be in order to have a marriage. This is obviously a period piece yet it’s so not. Hopefully men will enjoy it but I think women will be inspired and empowered by Amelia.
- Amelia seemed to be entirely driven by her love of flying, don’t you think?
She actually was quoted as saying when she was in the air, she’s not tethered to the things of this world, the constraints that you have on the ground.
- When do you have this? When you are acting?
Yeah. I would say definitely. That’s when I feel the most free and alive, for sure. I love my job. I love to act. It brings me a great source of joy. Really great.
And every time I’m on set, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to get to do what I love. It never changes. I’m so excited to go to work.
- You executive produced Amelia. Is the production side of filmmaking something you’re interested in?
I do have a production company. The films that I executive produced, I didn’t develop from scratch. I didn’t consider myself a producer. I think a producer is involved from the conception.
But I definitely play a huge part in actively trying to cast it. On Freedom Writers, I actively worked on the music. Getting the right music and meeting people. So I don’t just throw my name on there to help with my production company.
I actually really do work hard to get all the right elements together. On Amelia, I really was casting, working with the producers to get the Elektra to be a part of the movie. There are only three of those planes in the world. One of them isn’t running.
The other one is in Southern California, and we shot that stuff in South Africa. So we had to get the plane from France to South Africa. It’s expensive to do that. I don’t know. Sometimes it helps to get on the phone and talk to people and say, ‘I’m Hilary Swank. I’m playing Amelia.
I’m passionate about this movie. And your plane is really going to make a difference.’ And people like to hear that.
They want to hear the passion behind it. It just makes a difference. If I can help make a movie better in that aspect of it, I’m going to certainly do everything I can because making a movie is such a collaboration.
- Given your own publicity duties you must perform, do you relate to the way Amelia was worked in the media by George Putnam?
With any art, there comes the commerce. I personally feel, in order of it to be successful, you have to have an understanding of both sides. I think Amelia had an understanding that in order to pursue a passion, she had to work the business side of it.
I obviously am an actor because I love to tell stories. Obviously I love the art of it. But I understand I need to travel the world and have discussions and talk about the movie, which I love to do. But it’s also really tiring.
Amelia, when she had to travel all the time, she said to George ‘I’m tried.’ It’s tiring and it’s really hard work.
I would say that this is really where my work lies. Travelling around and talking about the movie and doing press. It’s actually harder to do than what I love to do, which is making the film. But it’s also fun to talk about how movies are made, and why you make them and why you’re a part of them.
- Did you know much about Amelia before you started the film?
I have to say I thought I knew a lot about Amelia before I took the role but I didn’t know all that she actually did for others, until I started reading about her. I didn’t realise the humanitarian that she was.
I didn’t realise the prolific writer that she was. She loved to travel. She stood up for others. Especially women. And it’s so refreshing to see a woman be so supportive of another woman.
I feel like that’s something that got lost along the way. Especially in the early Twenties, when women got the right to vote, women were so respectful of other woman and inspired by other women’s power and strength.
And somewhere women started getting threatened by that. I find that her support of others there were other women who were breaking a lot more aviation records than she was, and she stood right by them and cheered them on.
It’s admirable. It’s a real admirable quality. And helping children she worked as a nurse during the war. She lived in Toronto and got really sick helping veterans of the war. It affected her hearing and her throat and it was hard for her to fly because of the sickness she got.
And all she did for children, in orphanages around the world how does anyone find time to do all that? It’s extraordinary, right? To live your dream, pursue your passion of flying, yet also help so many people. It’s really extraordinary.
- Do you see many similarities between yourself and Amelia?
I think there are a lot of similarities. I think that obviously she was actively pursuing her goals and her dreams, and obviously that’s something that I’ve done and continue to do. I love to travel.
I’m a curious person. She was obviously curious and a traveller. One of her biggest passions was to see the world, and it’s always been mine. I remember being so young and watching planes fly overhead and think, ‘Where are they going?
There are so many places to see in the world and I want to see them all!’ She was a great adventurer. She was a real risk-taker. So there definitely are a lot of similarities.
- So are you a vagabond like Amelia?
I’d say of sorts, definitely, yeah!
- Well, you’re both small town girls of course...
She was from Kansas and I was from Nebraska. I think the fun thing about being from the Mid-West is that you just have humble beginnings.
It’s a quality of my life that I wouldn’t change for the world, having grown up with such a humble background. It’s made me really appreciate what I have in my life now. It also keeps me grounded. I don’t want to ever forget where I’ve come from.
- How do you feel about scenes from the film that didn’t make the final cut turning up on the DVD? Do you mind?
No I don’t mind them showing up anywhere. I don’t think there was anything missing that was a favourite of mine. Thankfully they made the movie. But it does happen. It does happen.
- It’s ten years since Boys Don’t Cry. How do you look back on that?
It was the film that people recognise me from. It’s incredible to think it’s been ten years. Time just flies. It just goes to show, it’s the perfect example of something that Amelia was to me a reminder that life is so short.
It just happens and it’s over. You only have one life and if you’re not doing what you love, what’s the point? To think that ten years later, I’m talking about a movie that I’m a part of, that I love, it’s really it’s something. It really hit me. I thought, ‘I’m still acting. It’s really great.’
- Do you see yourself as a prime example of the American Dream?
I didn’t really think about it until a lot of young women and some men would come up to me and say, ‘You’re a reminder to me to not give up my dream. That you don’t have to be born into it.
You can work hard and I’m not going to give up.’ That’s a nice feeling. But it’s not why I’m an actor. It’s not why I do what I do. That’s not why I live my dream to be some sort of inspiration. It’s nice to hear, though.
- What drives you to take a project?
I find obviously there are so many different scripts and stories that I see. You just have to feel that thing. There’s a fire that has to be lit while you’re reading it, where you say ‘This scares me.
I don’t know if I can do it. It’s such a challenge. I know I’m going to wake up everyday and think ‘Am I messing this up?’
But also something inherently that you I suppose relate to in a way. Or maybe not even relate to but you’re inspired by. I do see a thread in these characters that I’ve chosen to play.
- You haven’t made a franchise movie since The Next Karate Kid. Was that deliberate?
No, it’s not deliberate at all. A lot of people say ‘You’re so active. Having down The Next Karate Kid or Million Dollar Baby, where you were so physical, you haven’t really done a superhero type movie. Tomb Raider or something. Why don’t you do that type of movie?’ I get that question a lot. It’s not that I don’t want to. I just haven’t had that opportunity.
- Do you feel any kind of responsibility playing a real life person?
Something that happens in playing a person that really lived is that there’s a responsibility that comes with it. I can’t look at this person and put some fictional stuff into it. There’s not a lot of leeway to play around. We all have an idea of what Amelia looked like. She’s a style icon.
There are images of her all over the place. It wasn’t like I could play her with long flowing hair. And I don’t really feel like Amelia and I look alike. I have such a strong jawbone and she has grey eyes, blonde hair, freckles fair, fair skin. I’m more olive.
When they offered it for me, I looked at the cover letter just to make sure it wasn’t supposed to be sent to another actress. So that was fun to try and figure her out physically. And the way she spoke the way people spoke in that era to me sounded very upper class to me.
But she wasn’t upper class. She was from the Mid-West, so her accent was the hardest accent I have done in my career yet. It was really hard for me to figure out.
There is about twelve minutes of newsreel on her, so I got to watch her for a little bit and the way she spoke. She was so humble and so down to earth and self-deprecating. So it was a huge responsibility.
There’s always going to be a comparison and there’s always someone who says, ‘They don’t look alike at all.’ You’re going to get those comparisons. You really throw yourself out there to have mud thrown at you.
- How do you feel about being a celebrity?
The whole celebrity aspect of it is a very interesting thing. There’s such an interest in celebrities in the world and I didn’t sign up necessarily to become a celebrity. But it’s hard to have one without the other.
You can’t really have a career without that, so it’s hard to talk bad about it. It’s an important aspect of my career but it’s not something you sign up for. It’s not why I became an actor.
- You won two Oscars very early in your career. Do you feel pressure every time you now choose a project?
No. A lot of people ask that question but I don’t. I never have felt that. I think if you enter into the business for other reasons it’s not like I thought, ‘I must keep looking for roles that garner that attention.’ Or, ‘I have to keep living up to that expectation’ because it was never an expectation I had.
- You’ve been in everything from horror films like The Reaping to sci-fi efforts like The Core. Are you a big genre fan?
I think I’ve done any genre now! I’d like to continue to try them all. I don’t know if a musical would be up my alley, but you never know. Never say never.
- Can you tell me about your next film, Betty Ann Waters?
Betty Ann Waters is another biopic. It’s a true story and she’s living. Just like Erin Gruwell, in Freedom Writers this person is alive and going to see the film. That’s another level of responsibility.
I’ve met her. I’ve spent a lot of time with Betty Ann, and she is an extraordinary woman and one of my heroes. She is something else, this woman.
Betty Ann Waters is a true love story between siblings, between a brother and a sister, and how through an extraordinarily difficult childhood, how that bond will forever be the foundation of your life. And how they are there for each other. I think you need that one person in your life that believes in you and they had that in each other for sure.
Amelia is released on DVD on 8 March 2010 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
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