Emmanuel Itier: What are you wearing?

Hilary Swank: I´m wearing Chanel. Chanel works, right? I love Chanel.

EI: Did you make this film shortly after “Million Dollar Baby”? Because you looked so toned/in shape…

HS: Yeah, uh… let´s say… how long after was it? I read the script a week before the Academy Awards, so yeah, it was. I did “Black Dahlia” and then I went right into that. I would say a year after. But it took a long time. I put on 19 pounds of muscle, so it took a while to get that off. And even still, when I flex, its scary.

EI: Do you still workout?

HS: I don´t work out. I mean, I don´t lift weights, but can you imagine that that is still there (shows her bicep muscle – huge!) and that´s nothing. When I put my shirts on, it´s so funny. I put my shirts on that I couldn´t put on when I was filming “Million dollar baby”. I put my shirts on that I thought I would have to throw away and that my arms would never go back. So that´s like nothing.

EI: Now do you not workout?

HS: No, no. I don´t lift weights like that. I worked out five hours a day for “Million Dollar Baby”, so I just don´t do that, and I don´t eat 210 grams of protein a day either. After “Million Dollar Baby”, I went to “The Black Dahlia” and then “The Reaping”.

EI: What was it about “The Reaping” that got you interested?

HS: I read the script and I just couldn´t stop thinking about it. I thought it was such a great supernatural thriller and I was so entertained, and it was just a page-turner to me and it made me think, and there were twists and turns that I didn´t see coming that I thought I can´t believe–it got me. I remember looking at the script and going, “You got me!” I was really surprised. I just thought, I mean, I read. You guys see as many movies as I read, or maybe not–I read a lot. (laughs) I just thought to myself, “How did I not see that?” And I love that. I love that this genre, when done well, makes you think like that. So that was my thinking, and its fun to do something different.

EI: Did you like that your character was someone who had lost her faith and evolved?

HS: Right–yeah, which I also love. I loved the idea that you see life a certain way and something happens, and you see it another way, and then through the course of the movie her faith regained, and I think that´s interesting. There is a lot of talk about God and science, and it’s just interesting, as an actor, that I get a look at these things way deeper than I would have ever done, had I not been an actor.

EI: It´s a kind of mainstream blockbuster-type movie. People often think every time you are in a movie, you may win an Oscar. Is it kind of nice to get away from the pressure of that?

HS: I´m glad that you think that–that´s great! (Laughs) I never look at any roles for, you know, “Okay, now it’s time to do a small movie… Now it’s time to do a movie that´s critically acclaimed.” Because if you are thinking like that, you are thinking of the outcome and you are not thinking of what it is you are doing, and you can never guess the outcome of anything. Who would have ever thought “Boys Don´t Cry” or any of these movies you see… it’s such as Clint says: you always aim for the bulls eye, but you don´t always hit it. It´s such collaboration. So I just try and do things that I love to do, and it´s just nice when it all comes out how it was on the page. I watched this movie, and I was going like this: “Ahhh!” And my friends were going to me, you read this and you filmed it. How aren’t you scared? But it got me.

EI: What is your take on science versus religion?

HS: As I was saying, being an actor is just such a great way to see life in so many different ways, and I read these things with a sceptic mind, and all these interesting magazines and books on these things that Steven had given me, and when you sit down and talk to these people and try to be really open minded about how they see life, it’s really interesting. The way I see it is that it´s great that we live in a place where we can have different types of thinking and different ways of looking at life. I´m definitely more faith-based than sceptic-based. That´s just the way I am. I look at where I am now and from where I´ve come from, and I defiantly have to say it´s given me faith.

EI: Do you believe in miracles?

HS: I think the definitions of miracles are so subjective. I don´t know what you believe is a miracle. Some people think it’s people walking on water, and some people think it’s childbirth. So I don´t know what people´s definition of a miracle is, but…

EI: Something supernatural?

HS: Like the plagues happening? Probably not so much.

EI: It has been quite a transitional period for you personally. For you, do you think it is about destiny? Is this the way it should happen, or are you a little more detailed about it?

HS: Well, I think you definitely play a part in your faith. Just depending on how you choose to wake up in the morning and say, “I really want this to happen in my life,” but if you sit on the coach all day, you know you can´t expect it. I believe in working really hard. I believe in getting out there and fighting for what you believe in. I also think that, speaking personally, I´ve been really lucky. I´ve been really blessed with a lot of luck, but I also like to work hard, so I´ve had a bit of both.

EI: Do you believe in The Secret – the law of attraction?

HS: I think that you know if you want something in your life you have to go after it. That´s what I think.

EI: And you have to fight for it?

HS: Absolutely.

EI: How do you ease the feeling when you get frightened?

HS: I don´t really get frightened by things like spiders and stuff like that, so I don´t really have to go and do that very often, but I like going to scary movies because I´m kind of the roller coaster type. I like going on roller coasters. I like skydiving. I like stuff like that, so I´m not easily scared by those types of things.

EI: What are you scared by?

HS: Waking up and hoping that I can make my character believable; (laughs) wondering if I´m going to be able to do a good job in my movies and if I´m going to be able to pull it off.

EI: Even after two Oscars, you still worry like that?

HS: Oh yeah.

EI: Because you´ve won two Oscars, do you feel like you have more pressure to always pull off an amazing performance?

HS: No, I think after “Boys Don´t Cry”, because it just kind of happened out of nowhere, I was like, “Where do I go from here?” But that was pressure that I was putting on myself. I think I just had to get back to the basics as to why I´m doing this. I love people. I love stories. I love telling these stories. I love movies. I love books. I love being an entertainer. I love doing movies like this. I like talking about it. So I just have to get back to that and remember that sort of thing, and not think about”