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Hilary Swank is back to work!
“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Hilary at the NYC premiere of her new movie, “Ordinary Angels,” where she dished on motherhood after welcoming twins Aya and Ohm.
She gushed, “So much of acting is empathizing and really stepping in people’s shoes and seeing through their eyes. I mean, I haven’t done a movie since having my babies with the strike and everything, so we’ll see what it brings, but I just think that having babies makes you feel deeper everything. You just, I think it’s such a gift. I don’t know how else to say it.”
As for the inspiration behind their names, Swank explained, “Well, I we just met beautiful people in Lebanon and Syrian refugees, and so we thought this is a beautiful name and Ohm is a universal sound.”
“Ordinary Angels” is inspired by the true story of a hairdresser who rallied a community to help a widower get his daughter a life-saving transplant.
When asked what surprised her most about stepping into the role, Hilary shared, “Well, how good it makes me [feel] because everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you’re such an angel.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m just playing an angel, you know?’… Sharon is just such a beautiful reminder of how we can find our fullest purpose by serving others, really, you know, and how much we actually get from helping others, as much as someone else may get from that act of kindness.”
Swank could “absolutely” relate to Sharon, who didn’t take no for an answer. She noted, “I think that that’s how you get things done is you kind of you just keep kind of, I don’t know what the saying is, but you, like, keep going down the road. You keep going, and if you hit a dead end, you look for another path and you just try and make things happen, so for sure.”
She went on, “I also like she has another line with, ‘You better get comfortable with being uncomfortable,’ because that’s so much a part of life is persevering through adversity, and I’ve definitely found most of my inspiration from people who do persevere through adversity, and so that’s always just a good reminder I think for everybody to never give up.”
Hilary also discussed the message about the importance of organ donation. She shared, “My father had passed about five months before we started filming, but the blessing is that my dad was a lung transplant recipient and so he had the ability to have his life elongated because someone was gracious enough to be a donor, so it really reminds us the importance of being a donor.”
Finally, Hilary reacted to the 20th anniversary of “Million Dollar Baby,” the role that won her an Oscar.
“It doesn’t feel like just yesterday, I feel like I’ve done so much,” she reflected. “It is surprising that it’s 20 years. It feels more like 10, but it doesn’t feel like yesterday. It was such a beautiful journey, and I remember feeling like, ‘Oh, this is so bittersweet,’ because I turned 30 on the day we wrapped, and I remember thinking, ‘It’s not gonna get any better than this.’ But it’s been pretty good, so I can’t complain.”