Hilary Swank Admitted To Announcing Her Pregnancy Before She Was Ready
Hilary Swank has taken on a wide variety of projects since winning her two acting Oscars. After taking a few years away from acting, the Nebraska native went on to star in the sci-fi series Away and the drama mystery film I Am Mother for Netflix. Around the same time, she also starred opposite Michael Ealy in the thriller Fatale.
Meanwhile, Swank has recently been starring in the ABC drama Alaska Daily where she plays a journalist who decides to work for a newspaper in Anchorage in the hopes of getting a fresh start. And while the actress is usually a very private person, working on the series also made Swank realize that she would have to reveal her pregnancy sooner rather than later.
Hilary Swank Revealed She Was Expecting Twins On Good Morning America
The actress made an appearance on the show to discuss Alaska Daily but then it was also revealed that she wanted to share something else.
“This is something that I've been wanting for a long time and my next thing is I'm gonna be a mom,” Swank revealed. “And not just of one, but of two. I can't believe it. It's so nice to be able to talk about it and share it.”
After her GMA appearance, Swank also went on to appear in Live with Kelly and Ryan where she also spoke briefly about her pregnancy. “It’s such a blessing,” the actress said. “It’s a total miracle.”
Later on, Swank also revealed on The Drew Barrymore Show that her twins are due on her late father’s birthday.
Filming Alaska Daily Made Hilary Swank Realize She Should ‘Tell People Soon’ About Her Pregnancy
Ideally, Swank wanted to keep her pregnancy under wraps. But while filming the show, she realized that would be almost impossible to do.
“You don’t tell for 12 weeks for a certain reason. But then, like, you’re growing and you’re using the bathroom a lot and you’re eating a lot,” the Oscar winner said.
Not to mention, she also started to struggle to fit into her costumes, and that ultimately convinced her that she had to make the announcement.
“There was a moment just last week when my pants didn’t fit anymore, and I had to like cut ... my pants, and then I put a jacket on over it like I had to hide it, right? And the continuity (person) was like, ‘That doesn’t match’ (a previous take) And I’m like, ‘Oh, you know, it’s OK, it’ll work.’ And they’re like, ‘No, it doesn’t match,’” Swank recalled.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh, I think it’s OK.’ I think we can make it work.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, you’re an executive producer, so you can do what you want, but that doesn’t work.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to be able to tell people soon.’”
Hilary Swank Reveals That Filming While Pregnant Has Been A ‘Different Set of Circumstances’
For Swank, taking on the lead role in Alaska Daily was quite an easy decision from the beginning since the show was created by Oscar-winning writer-director Tom McCarthy.
“Tom McCarthy, I'm a huge fan of, and I am I've been a fan of [his film] Spotlight, actually since The Station Agent,” the actress said of McCarthy.
At the same time, Swank also said she “100 percent” agreed to do the show when she learned that her character would be investigating the suspected murder of an indigenous woman, a disturbing occurrence that has been going on for years.
The National Crime Information Center even estimates that as many as 5,712 cases involving American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls have been reported since 2016.
“And when he [McCarthy] said that this was based on a story, called Lawless, I read the article. I knew about the missing, murdered indigenous women, I knew about that. But the story was just [shocking],” Swank said.
“To me, I knew about that, and yet so many people don't know about it and it's happening right now, right this second, and no one's doing anything about it, it is horrific and something needs to be done.”
And while the actress was passionate about doing the show, filming while expecting was an entirely new experience for the Oscar winner. Not to mention, Swank was also new to early pregnancy pains.
“I’ve never been pregnant before and being able to now have a deeper understanding of what women have gone through for so long, the nauseousness and the exhaustion, and especially in the first trimester,” she explained.
In the end, it made filming quite a unique experience for Swank this time around. “We work 15-hour days and a TV series is like a marathon, so some day are six-day weeks and we have 30-minute lunches,” Swank recalled.
“And look, I’m not complaining because I love my job, but when you ask, like, ‘What is it like to be pregnant during that?’ It’s definitely a different set of circumstances.”
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