Million dollar backseat.
Hilary Swank’s long road to being one of the biggest A-listers in Hollywood began with humble beginnings.
The Oscar winner, 49, recently looked back on the start of her career, admitting that she used to sleep in her car with her mom, Judy, when she first got to Hollywood.
Swank recalled leaving her Washington high school after sophomore year in an attempt to make it big in Los Angeles in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.
The “Million Dollar Baby” star explained that her mother had just separated from her father, Stephen, and they drove to LA from her hometown of Bellingham, Washington.
“I began the process of breaking into the business. In LA, my mother and I first lived in her Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme on quiet residential streets,” she said.
“When we weren’t sleeping in the car, we stayed at the house of a new friend my age whose family had just moved out and were trying to sell their home. We slept on an air mattress,” Swank remembered.
Judy then found work as a secretary in California, and they rented a bedroom from a single mom.
“Starting out, I booked just OK television parts, but I didn’t care,” the “Ordinary Angels” actress added. “I was excited to be living my dream.”
Swank then gushed over her mother, who was always her biggest supporter and who “understood the excitement of performing.”
Swank’s first leading role in a feature film was 1992’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and she subsequently appeared in hits such as “The Next Karate Kid” and “Boys Don’t Cry.”
She then scored Academy Awards for her roles in “Boys Don’t Cry” in 2000 and “Million Dollar Baby” in 2005.
Despite becoming a household name, the Nebraska-born star is now content living outside of Tinseltown.
She currently resides in Colorado with her husband, Philip Schneider, and their 10-month-old twins, Aya and Ohm.
“We have horses, dogs and a parrot,” she said when talking about her rural abode. “We’re hoping to add goats, chickens and perhaps a pig.”
“Even though I’m happy we left LA, every so often, when I’m there for meetings, I’ll drive along a street in Pasadena where my mom and I parked and slept,” Swank continued. “Despite the challenges, I feel nostalgia for those days, when we had nothing.”
Swank and Schneider married in 2018 after two years of dating. They became first-time parents when their little ones arrived in April 2023.
