Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank is in repose on a powder-blue settee. She has just finished a photo shoot and is wearing a sleek, burgundy silk dress. She looks as though she could be sitting for Modigliani, until suddenly, she sits up, tosses back her goldspun hair, and reveals a shiner.

It would be natural to assume Swank’s black eye was the result of a hard punch, earned during filming of Million Dollar Baby, in which she plays a professional boxer. But you’d be wrong.

"I got it from my dog," she says. "We were playing tug-of-war, and when I bent down to kiss her, her skull banged me right there. Five months later, and I finally get taken by the dog."

For Million Dollar Baby, which pairs her with Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood (who plays her trainer and also directs), Swank, 30, spent three months studying tape and training at storied Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. The experience proved humbling. "I remember the first time I heard a three-minute round. I thought, ‘I’m going to kick someone’s ass,’ " she says. "Then I got in there, and after a minute and a half, I almost threw up."

But she endured, gaining 17 pounds of muscle for the role, and newfound physical and mental toughness. "Your mind is such a powerful tool and a hindrance both," she says. "The second you think, ‘Whoa, that was a good punch,’ you’re gonna get hit."

Swank says her experience in the ring reminded her somewhat of her acting career. "The second after I won the Academy Award (for 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry), I felt inhibited, like I was being watched under a microscope," she says. "People weren’t necessarily putting that on me so much as I was putting that on myself. It took a while before I could relax and enjoy acting again."
Related Links:
Movie Review: Million Dollar Baby
A brave piece of work that’s more than just moving—it’s genuinely upsetting, and haunting.