Hilary Swank on Her Craft – and Aircraft

She doesn’t just play characters…Hilary Swank becomes her characters. She’s already scored two Oscars playing a boxer and a transgendered teen in 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby” and 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” and now, she’s poised to earn another Academy nod or honor for her role as Amelia Earhart in “Amelia,” which opens Oct. 25.

Knowing Swank would take her performance to new heights – literally, with flying lessons – director Mira Nair cast her as the charismatic icon who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world in 1937.

“Truth is often much more powerful than fiction,” Nair stated. “We had the records of the last transmissions and nothing could be more dramatic and heartbreaking than that. I had one of the greatest artists in drama with me in Hilary, and I systematically staged carefully and truthfully the transmissions. Hilary did what she does beautifully. I hope this visual drama will take you to where she was.”

At press day, Hilary sat with www.CelebrityEverything.com and a host of other reporters to discuss how she embraced the essence of the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Q: What inspired you about Amelia when researching this role and how did you go about doing your research?

H: I learned about Amelia at a very young age, but what I learned was what you learn in textbooks. For me, getting under the skin of who I’m playing is really important – we’re all specific human beings and trying to figure that out about a person is very important. There was lots of literature about Amelia, I read two books as well as her book, 20 Hours and 40 Minutes, and trying to understand who she was, she was a very private person. So what she was expressing out in the world might not have necessarily been what her true thoughts were.

One thing I found very inspiring and moving and why I feel a lot of people are coming up to me saying, “I can’t wait to see Amelia” is the idea – this person – who lived her life the way she wanted to live it. She made no apologies for saying, “This is my life and this is how I see it and this is how I want it to be done.” I think that in 2009 that’s really rare, especially for women. I think this is still a more male-centric world and males are able to have the life they envision for themselves, but not so much for women, even in 2009. So when we’re talking about someone living in the 20s, when women just got the right to vote, and the 30s, it’s incredible and it transcends to what we know now. That’s a reminder, certainly for me, that you only have one life and it’s so short. Amelia’s was so short and she accomplished a lot in her lifetime. She was a reminder that you can live your life the way you want it and find love and experience your dreams and have it all.

Q: You were taking flying lessons – can you talk about that and your interest in getting a license?

Obviously you can’t play Amelia Erheart and not learn how to fly – that would just be wrong in every way. When you’re a kid, there are so many firsts – you learn how to ride a bike and read and you’re in the moment. Then you’re an adult and there’s not a lot of firsts anymore. Learning how to fly for me was like learning how to ride a bike – it was a first. It takes all of your senses, it’s dangerous and adventurous, I love to learn something new and challenging and I didn’t realize all the calculations that go into flying. And I’m not a big sweater, but after a flight lesson when I would land my back was drenched just from the concentration. I flew 19 hours and was wanting to get my pilot’s license, but for insurance reasons I couldn’t go up by myself in order to do that. I’m sure now they’re like, “Sure, go ahead! When you’re done with the press, go for it kid!” But I would like to get my pilot’s license. I like to see things through to the end, and will continue to go up on my own. And saying I learned how to fly to play Amelia Erheart is pretty great.

Q: Had you always wanted to play Amelia and how did you relate to her open marriage?

H: I wouldn’t say I was always longing to play Amelia Earhart, but I do long to play roles that challenge me, scare me and make me learn new things about the world and my art. I read a script on Amelia about 10 years ago, and it didn’t capture Amelia to me, but when this one came across my desk, I just felt that connection. I feel like if we could all be so forthright and upfront about our feelings, emotions, desires and needs, it could manage expectations about relationships, but it’s challenging to be that honest. It’s really hard, but she had already expressed that’s how she was going to live her life, so it almost made it an unconditional relationship they had, which is really rare. A lot of our life is about that – figuring out how we can be honest with ourselves and our relationships.

Q: Uma Thurman just said you might possibly get an Oscar for your role – how do you feel about that?

H: To have such a compliment from another actress I admire so much is a great honor. Amelia was so supportive of other women, and I feel like women aren’t always supportive of another woman’s strengths. Powerful women are supportive of the underdog but when it’s another woman’s strengths they find it hard to muster up accolades. So, it’s really nice to hear that from someone I admire so much, but Mira being at the helm of this ship, was such a perfect match because it’s rare to see a woman carrying herself in the way in which she does and she also doesn’t make apologies for her strengths. It’s interesting, a lot of times a woman of power is apologizing – ‘I’m sorry, but,’ so to see Mira direct with the strength and vision she carries was perfect for a story about Amelia Earhart. It’s a hard enough world in general, and then you add being a woman, we just need to be there for each other.

Q: What was the impact when you saw the [Lockheed L-10] Electra on set? Did it help you get into that mode of Amelia?

H: You can’t tell the story without the Electra. It’s talked about throughout the film, and in the latter part of the film it’s a character in the movie. Think about it – we fly all the time and when Amelia was doing it, it was a sport. She hoped someday it would be a way of transportation. This plane in particular is a beast to fly and it was dangerous when Amelia was flying. So to fly it around the world is really quite remarkable.

Q: How do you think Amelia would feel knowing how common flying is now and how beneficial was it for you to have archival footage of Amelia?

H: She’d be thrilled. It was something she was always commenting about and she was all about the progress of aviation.

The footage of Amelia is mostly news reels and her public face, but I felt like Amelia had a specific physicality – a unique pattern in which she spoke. In fact I spent over eight weeks trying to figure out how she spoke. That period way of speaking can sound, for lack of a better word, posh, but Amelia wasn’t that. She was a girl from Kansas who sounded period, but different than that. And figuring out her public persona was a challenge. But I felt like by the end of it I had a good idea of who Amelia was and my life is just richer walking around with her in my heart.