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t.g. pierson
Anjelica Huston
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t.g. pierson
Hilary Swank is one of those rare Actress who are hard to cast because of looks and body. However, when you look at her career you can see where casting directors went wrong and also see where they went right. When she is used right in a movie she hits it out of the ball park…and wins Oscars.
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Sally in Chicago
^ I agree. I have seen a lot of Hillary movies and she was right for them all. She’s a great actress, and she’s getting good material not great material. But who outside of Meryl Streep is getting the good roles?
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Zach
So true, Sally. Even when the movies are subpar, Swank still excels in them. For instance, P.S. I Love You is considered a dud; I know a lot of women who liked it anyway. I think fans and haters alike can agree that even if she isn’t a natural choice for the genre, she was so genuine and sympathetic in the role. And in The Black Dahlia she pulled off the femme fatale with aplomb, even in an over-the-top movie. People harp on her weaker choices, but it’s the movies that disappoint, not Hilary. She shows how strong and natural a talent she is even when given lesser material.
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Zach
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Sally in Chicago
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Ryan B
We need more actors like Swank. Someone to take those future no-nonsense, smart, tough roles, assuming those will keep being written. The parts enjoyed by actors like Sigourney Weaver and Frances McDormand.
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t.g. pierson
I would put Swank in the same category as the great Sigourney Weaver, the always reliable Frances McDormand and the always unexpected Anjelica Huston. These are examples of the greatest actresses working who push the envelope in creating tough and interesting and intelligent roles. Weaver set the standard with the tough as nails Ripley in the Alien films, and is there a more interesting actress around then Anjelica Huston? I think not.
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Zach
Huston is another actress with a big jaw. Ironic that they both costarred in “Iron Jawed Angels.”
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Zach
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t.g. pierson
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John
This article reeks of the Schwarzbaum getting a call from Swank’s manager for writing a bad review.
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PragmaticOptimist
Swank is a beautiful woman, even if not classically. You want a face that’s challenging to cast, look no further than Christa Miller on “Cougar Town”. Were it not for her husband producing her shows, she’d never find work with that horribly plastic face she wears. Went from a cute & sexy woman to the next inductee into Joan Rivers’ Alien Camp.
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Wes
Laura Dern.
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Amy
What a ridiculous, sexist topic this is. Would you write the same article about Nicolas Cage? He’s “unconventional” and has as many flops as hits.
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brandon
It wasn’t really an issue in “Freedom Writers” but even the characters she plays seem to be very body or looks conscious– from the way she makes fun of her face in “The Next Karate Kid” to falling and breaking her nose in “P.S. I Love You.” Kind of nice to see I’m not the only person who has picked up on this.
For the record, she is sexy as hell, I’ll see “Amelia” eventually but I liked Amy Adams’ spunky “Hudsucker Proxy”esque portayal well enough to let it be the one most fresh in my mind for a while.
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134 Freeway
Swank was also very good in Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Williams.
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PragmaticOptimist
Agree w/ Amy.
Besides, Hilary’s acting is infinitely better than Cage’s. You pick Hilary when you need precision quality. You pick Cage when you need over-acting to sell a crappy script.Additionally, Swank in “Iron Jawed Angles” was very, VERY sexy.
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PJ
I saw Amelia and thought it was decent – not amazing but certainly not as bad as all the reviews made it out to be. I think critics hold women-driven projects to a higher standard than their male counterparts.
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Lisa Schwarzbaum
PJ, you make such a great point (about women-driven projects) that I plan to write about it in a separate post–thanks!
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Lisa Schwarzbaum
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pop
tilda swinton, angelica huston…
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Alli
Absolutely Tilda Swinton! She is so other-worldly that it is difficult to think of her playing a regular person. She is such a unique presence and talented actress. She even won an Oscar for playing a regular gal.
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Alli
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Wolfgang Wigands
H.Swank-Crystalle
watch her on http://www.crystalle.eu
The performance is an homage to the legendary female pilot Amelia Earhart.
Crystalle starts to build this performance already in 2006 San Francisco
long before the 20th CENTURY FOX movie AMELIA became reality. -
david
NICOLE KIDMAN
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jl
I don’t really see how she relates to the question but I do have something to say about her: She is a good actress who picks horrible movie roles.
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jl
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Lindsay Coleman
Here goes. Tom Sizemore has intense energy burst from an unglamorous body and a puffy face. But those blazing eyes cannot be denied, along with that keen intelligence. Tilda Swinton is white-hot despite an utterly unconventional appearence. Nicholas Cage is increasingly haggard, yet is in family films. Hollywood is more of a mystery than people believe.
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'Amelia,' Hilary Swank: Finding a movie role to fit the face
Hilary Swank plays the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart in Amelia. And although, as I said in my review, the movie is earthbound, the choice of Swank in the title role demonstrates sky-clear thinking. (Okay, that’s enough of the windblown aeronautical metaphors.) Physically, the two are twins, and not just because Swank has been coiffed in Earhart’s striking, trademark, short-haired tousle, a variation on Winnie the Pooh’s Christopher Robin. Rather, both women project a seductive androgyny–a boyishness that nevertheless leaves no doubt about the sexuality of the woman wearing the trousers.
True, Swank first found fame as a girl living as a boy in Boys Don’t Cry. But even when she unbound her breasts in subsequent roles, the strong set of her jaw and, more fundamentally, her brisk, un-girly manner has made her a casting director’s challenge. The very Swank-ness of Swank continues to pose a fascinating personal artistic challenge as she charts her best career course: Million Dollar Baby? A home run. The saccharine romance P.S., I Love You? A big dud. Freedom Writers? The right idea, but the wrong project.
Truth is, I really like actors who are tough nuts to crack, tough faces and bodies to glamorize, and tough personalities to cast; I like the way they tend to outrun the best intentions of stylists who glam them up on the covers of fashion magazines. So I really like Swank, and the tough, toothy, I-will-survive ferocity that radiates off her, even when she’s dolled up. I don’t know why a subject as exciting as Amelia Earhart ended up stranded in a movie as dull as Amelia, but I’m rooting for the star in her next voyage.
Now comes the question I airmail to you: What actor, male or female, do you root for because he or she is just so…different?
Photo credits, (l. to r.): Ken Woroner, Merle W. Wallace, Jonathan Hession