Hilary Swank on the moment she realised she was ‘so much more than an actor’

HILARY Swank returns to the small screen this weekend in a retelling of the Getty abduction - and the Oscar winner reveals it was a family drama of her own that helped her assume the role.

NO one needs to tell Hilary Swank about the value of family. For most of the past three years, away from the spotlight, the Oscar-winning actor has shelved her high-profile career to care for her ailing father Stephen after he needed a lung transplant. It was a role the 44-year-old was happy to play, when complications set in and the former air force chief master sergeant’s life hung in the balance.

While job offers continued to be sent to the star of Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby, being able to drop everything and focus on her family was a no-brainer.

“I’d been a working actor since the age of 15, and I’d always done something every year,” she said.

“So in stepping away I got to realise, like ‘Wow, I’m so much more than an actor.’ There are so many other facets of me that I got to explore and be and that’s when I started, in that down time, just cooking and taking care of my dad. He’s still living with me but he’s alive and healthy and it’s been over three years, so he made it past both marks.”

Hilary Swank posted this image to social media, captioned: “#HappyFathersDay to my dear Father! And, to all the Fathers out there! Today and always we cherish you!!” Picture: Instagram

It was with his health in mind that Swank and new husband. social venture entrepreneur Philip Schneider, also kept their August wedding as close to home as possible (with her father’s condition preventing him flying).

Still, the nature lovers could not have found a more romantic setting if they’d scripted it. Her now-recuperated dad walked his famous daughter down an outdoor aisle, dwarfed by 800-year-old redwood trees, nestled deep in Santa Lucia Preserve, outside Carmel, in California.

The bride was a vision in a custom Elie Saab dress, swathed in no less than 25m of chantilly lace and 8m of silk chiffon, with a 6m veil of silk organza. Clutching the arm of her father, before taking the hand of the man of her dreams, Swank’s decision to prioritise her personal life over her professional career clearly paid dividends. Indeed, besides her marriage, her other new endeavour outside of show business led the red carpet fashion favourite to launch her own ethical fashion label, Mission Statement, this week.

Hilary Swank and Philip Schneider on their wedding day. Picture: Supplied

The luxe leisure womenswear line, sold through US department store Nordstroms (which ships to Australia) was inspired by her life on the road, searching for pieces to take her from meetings to travel, and anywhere in between. The passion project was a creative by-product of her Hollywood hiatus, but her return was family-focused too — this time, in the dramatic television retelling of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.

Recently adapted for the big screen by Ridley Scott, in All The Money In The World, Swank plays the same role Michelle Williams did in the FX drama Trust — that of Paul’s mother Abigail “Gail” Getty.

When her son is kidnapped and a ransom sought from his billionaire oil baron grandfather, Gail must fight her father-in-law to pay the money or find her own means of rescuing him.

Donald Sutherland plays the super rich elder, who is steadfast in his refusal to negotiate with his grandson’s captors; even when the teen’s ear is severed and sent to the family as a graphic warning of their intent.

Prioritising his fortune over his family was an anathema to Gail - and Swank.

Hilary Swank as Gail Getty in the FX drama series, Trust, to air on Fox Showcase. Picture: Supplied/Foxtel

“[Gail] wasn’t interested in money … she just wanted her son to be alive,” Swank says.

“She didn’t ask [for money] when she got a divorce … she wanted to take care of herself.”

That independence and determination to fight for her son impressed Swank.

“She’s this incredible woman, who persevered,” the actor says.

“It’s astonishing to me … and beautiful … and totally understandable that a mother would do anything for her child. You hear about these super natural powers that a woman has when their child is trapped under a car and they find the strength to lift that car up. That’s something they have quite deep inside … and [creator] Simon [Beaufoy] wrote all of that in this [role], in a really beautiful way.”

Harris Dickinson as John Paul Getty III in Trust. Picture: Oliver Upton/FX

Seventeen-year-old John Paul Getty III after his release in December 1973. His captors severed his right ear to show proof of life.

Finding those qualities in herself, adds Swank, was like “peeling an onion away”.

“Gail had to find [the strength] and she did.”
She found a parallel with the advocacy role she played for her father during his fight for life.

“He was going in for the scariest journey of his life and to be there for someone like that during that time is one of the biggest privileges to be put in that position … we grew enormously from it.”

Trust, 9.30pm, Sunday, Fox Showcase