HILARY SWANK: 'I Believe in Miracles'

AFTER TAKING TIME OFF TO CARE FOR HER DYING FATHER, THE OSCAR WINNER HAS LEARNED TO BALANCE CAREER AND FAMILY.

THE news was devastating. In 2014, two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank learned that her father, Stephen, was in need of a lung transplant. The 49-year-old made the only decision she could, stepping back from Hollywood at the top of her game. “I know a lot of people were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, how can you take that much time off your career? Aren’t you worried about …?’” she later recalled. “I’m like, ‘Worried about what? I’m only worried about my dad’s health.”

She was with her father until the end in late 2020. In the years since, the Million Dollar Baby star has been slowly rebuilding her career, headlining the ABC drama Alaska Daily and starring in Netflix’s Away. Now she is back on the big screen in Ordinary Angels, playing a woman who finds her purpose helping a widowed father secure his daughter a liver transplant. The role, which came to Hilary just months after her father’s passing, felt heaven-sent. “Organ donation is a big, big thing to me,” she told a reporter, adding, “I think it would have been my dad’s favorite movie of mine.”

ROUGH BEGINNINGS