'Ordinary Angels' star Hilary Swank lived on streets of LA in her car before big break
Hilary Swank attends the Lionsgate's "Ordinary Angels" New York Premiere at SVA Theater on February 19, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images,)
From an early age, actress Hilary Swank had an urge to act. An interest in the craft, coupled with her innate talent, ultimately led Swank to make a big change: leave high school after her sophomore year and move to California.
She and her mother, Judy, who had recently separated from Swank's father, Stephen, caravanned from Washington to California in pursuit of giving Swank a Hollywood career, but things would not materialize right away.
"In L.A., my mother and I first lived in her Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme on quiet residential streets," she wrote in an essay for The Wall Street Journal.
"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."
The "Ordinary Angels" actress said after her mother landed a secretarial position, they were able to rent "a bedroom from a single mother in Burbank."
"Starting out, I booked just OK television parts, but I didn’t care. I was excited to be living my dream," Swank explained.
Her circumstances in Los Angeles were not too dissimilar to her situation in Washington. "In Bellingham, we lived in a trailer park, which wasn’t a negative for me. I had food and a roof over my head," she wrote. "It wasn’t until my friends’ parents excluded me from dinners and playdates that I realized living in a trailer park made me an outcast.
"Though I knew I was perceived as different, I didn’t immediately understand the classism. Then I did. I also understood that where we lived was a bigger issue for people than who I was."
At her core, Swank was a star, now going on to have an illustrious career. She won an Academy Award for the films "Boy's Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby" in 1999 and 2004, respectively.
In 2023, at the age of 49, she welcomed twins with husband Philip Schneider. They now split their time between Colorado and Washington.
"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 reflected. "Despite the challenges, I feel nostalgia for those days, when we had nothing."