page_title: Hilary Swank
section_title: 1999–2006: Critical acclaim
hierarchical_section_title: Hilary Swank / Career / 1999–2006: Critical acclaim
caption_attribution_description: Hilary Swank appears at Comic Con San Diego to promote her film The Reaping.
context_page_description: Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2005, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
  Swank made her film debut with a minor role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before receiving her breakthrough role in the fourth installment of The Karate Kid franchise, The Next Karate Kid. On television, she starred as Carly Reynolds on the eighth season of the Fox teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210. Swank received widespread critical acclaim for her performance as Brandon Teena, a trans man in the biographical drama film Boys Don't Cry, for which she received her first Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. For her portrayal of Maggie Fitzgerald in Clint Eastwood's sports drama film Million Dollar Baby, Swank received her second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
  Swank has also starred in other films, including The Gift, Insomnia, The Core, Iron Jawed Angels, Red Dust, The Reaping, P.S.
context_section_description: The firing from Beverly Hills, 90210 freed her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. To prepare for the role, Swank lived as a man for a month and reduced her body fat to seven percent. Many critics hailed her work as the best female performance of 1999 and her work ultimately won her the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Actress. Swank had earned only $75 per day for her work on the film, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low that she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance.
  Swank again won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for playing a female boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 film Million Dollar Baby, a role for which she underwent extensive training in the ring and weight room, aided by professional trainer Grant L. Roberts, gaining 19 pounds of muscle. With her second Oscar, she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Sally Field and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress twice and won both times. After winning her second Oscar, she said, "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."
  In 2006, Swank signed a three-year contract with Guerlain to be the face of the women's fragrance Insolence. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the motion picture category on January 8, 2007; it was the 2,325th star presented.
caption: Swank at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con
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