Hilary Swank

Profession: Actress
Place/Date of Birth: Lincoln, Nebraska

Hilary: I’m in love - Dec 13 2007
Hilary Swank doesn’t usually spill the beans on her love life, but she admits that she is in love.

"Of course I’m in love," the two-time Oscar winner says in the January issue of W.

"Or I wouldn’t be in this relationship for as long as I’ve been. He’s a great guy."

The lucky guy in the 33-year-old’s life is her former agent John Campisi.

She has been dating him since last summer following her split from her husband of eight years, Chad Lowe.

The actress will next be seen on the big screen in romantic comedy PS I Love You, playing widow Holly Kennedy.

"It’s a movie that I loved as soon as I read it. It’s romantic but funny," she says.

"Someone who saw it said to me that it’s one of those movies where you laugh through your tears."

Hilary admits that she was persuaded to take the role by director Richard LaGravenese, who directed her in Freedom Writers. The two projects were shot back to back.

"When we were doing Freedom Writers, Richard kept saying to me, ’You gotta do something romantic and funny. There’s a whole side of you people haven’t seen," she says.

Biography

Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of Judy, a secretary and dancer, and Stephen Swank, who was an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman. She has a brother, Dan. Many of her family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa. Swank came from humble beginnings, particularly as a child growing up in a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, where she moved to when she was six.

Swank has also described her younger self as an "outsider" who felt that she belonged "only when reading a book or seeing a movie, and could get involved with a character", and was thus inspired to become an actress.

When she was nine years old, Swank made her first appearance on stage starring in The Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs, including those of the Bellingham Theatre Guild. She went to Sehome High School in Bellingham until she was sixteen.

Swank also competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy when starring in The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later).

Swank's parents separated when she was thirteen, and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment. Swank has described her mother as the inspiration for her acting career and her life during this time period and subsequently.

In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School (although she later dropped out of high school) and started acting professionally. She also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs such as Evening Shade and Growing Pains.

courtesy of wikipedia
December 2007

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