Amelia: Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank’s latest role is the aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. The Academy Award winning actress talks to LOVEFiLM about learning to fly, her inspirations and why she always goes for strong female roles.

LOVEFiLM: In preparation for Amelia you actually learnt how to fly. What was that like?

Hilary Swank: You can’t play Amelia Earhart and not learn how to fly, right? Flying is absolutely exhilarating; I can see why Amelia loved it. I’m a curious person and I like to learn new things. Flying is all consuming; you have to concentrate and if you do one thing wrong you could be on the ground without landing.

LF: You always immerse yourself in your roles, with boxing and now flying. Was this the toughest thing you’ve had to do?

HS: No; learning how to box and putting on 19 pounds of muscle and working out five hours a day was physically one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. Passing as a boy was really challenging too. The thing is every role offers its own challenges. The hardest part about Amelia was figuring out her accent.

LF: How do you practice things like an accent? Do you stand in front of a mirror?

HS: No, I didn’t practise in front of a mirror but I like that idea (laughs). It was the hardest accent I’ve ever done in my career yet. First of all people from that period just spoke differently; they carried themselves differently. Sometimes that felt a little posh but then Amelia grew up in Kansas so she had a mixed-up accent. It took eight weeks and I still wish I’d had more time.

LF: What was the big attraction to playing Amelia?

HW: I came on board before there was a director; it was solely Amelia. I thought I knew a lot about Amelia before I took on the role; I knew that she was an aviatrix, I knew that she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, I knew that she wanted to fly around the world and she died trying, but I didn’t realise the humanitarian that she was, the prolific writer that she was. She was so extraordinary in so many ways. It was kind of a no brainer (accepting the role).

LF: With her spirit and approach to life and work, it feels like you were the perfect person to play the role of Amelia. Who’s been your role model in life?

HS: Definitely my mum. My mum and I are very different, yet my mum really instilled in me all the things that she didn’t do for herself. My mum was a great dancer when she was younger and didn’t follow her career because she got married and had kids. But my mum said to me that you can do anything you want as long as you work hard enough and don’t let anyone stand in your way. She gave me the gift of believing in myself in order to pursue what my dreams were.

LF: Did you identify with Amelia in that sense?

HS: Amelia had really supportive parents and that’s something we have in common. She was born in 1897 and was a huge tomboy; she would say to her mum, ‘I can’t climb fences and ride horses in this dress,’ and so her mum made her and her sister pantaloons. Her mum supported her when in that era it really wasn’t the thing to do.

LF: What draws you to these strong female roles?

HS: You know, I was asked if I actually search these roles out and it’s not like I call my agent and say, ‘find all the strong women who follow their passions.’ I think that the scripts that come to my desk, something happens inside and I feel passionate about it.

LF: What kind of place would be your dream destination?

HS: I’ve really had the opportunity to see a lot of the world, but I haven’t been to Israel and Egypt. I was actually in the Middle East yesterday which was my first time there; I was there for 36 hours. That’s the crazy thing, to think that Amelia Earhart had a dream that someday flying wouldn’t just be a sport it would be a means of transportation.

LF: How do you survive being a frequent flyer?

HS: (Laughs) I spend so much time in the air that I know the stewards on planes really well, it’s like they’re my friends. They say it’s illegal for them to fly as much as I fly, I’m literally on the plane that much! But it’s great downtime because I’m not reachable; it’s when I read my scripts.

LF: You’ve achieved so much already, what else is there for you to do?

HS: I have so much more I have to accomplish. I wanna travel, meet people, see different ways of life... I still feel I have so much more I wanna do and levels I want to get to. People ask me where do you go from Academy awards, and to me I look at those roles and I see my imperfections, I see where I could have been better.

Tegan Kniveton

Titles related to this article

Related/similar articles

• Swank's pilot dreams dashed by aviator movie (22 October 2009)
• Earhart plane hijacked en-route to film set (24 October 2009)
• Precious is a double winner at Hollywood Awards (28 October 2009)
• Fox divides movie poll (31 December 2009)
• Swank's latest movie goes straight to DVD (8 January 2011)
• Movie boss got lucky after passing on Million Dollar Baby (7 April 2011)