Hilary Swank

[spinsterliz]

I never believe anyone in Hollywood who spouts the "Gee y'all I'm just a lil' old girl who slept in my car and I don't know how I got here" crappola, from Hilary to Renee Zellweger. It makes me sick that some women think they have to apologize for wild success and act like they didn't earn it. Notice how famous men never pull that bull? Girls, you need to be more like the men. Admit you worked hard and had ambition, damn it. I promise nobody will come after you with a machete.

I think Hilary looks like a horse. Huge teeth, huge jaw. She is not so appealing. But I did like how she once took a dig at "90210" in an interview. She said that after she got fired from the show, she went home and cried to herself, "If I'm not good enough to be on '90210,' I shouldn't be an actress at all!" I always hated that stupid show, and liked her little jab at it.

[Deleted]

Isn't she a clam, too?

[Deleted]

Aaron Spelling must have been kicking himself when she won the Oscars. Hilary turned out to be possibly the biggest success out of 90210

[Deleted]

Do I think she's talented? Yes. Do I think she should have that second statuette? Probably not. And I say that without having seen M$B, I just think there are quite a good deal of equally talented actress who need their *first* statue (I'll be obvious and say Winslet).

Oh man. Absolutely. I thought her win for Boys Don't Cry was one of the best decisions the Academy ever made. M$B not so much. She was good (all of the nominees were strong) but it was Clint Eastwood who was the real acting surprise in that film. Hilary is great in a certain kind of role but has yet to prove to me that she is truly anything but a 1 trick pony (insert horse joke). Her attempts to branch out have, for various reasons, been unsuccessful. Maybe she learned some lessons the first time around and won't make the same mistakes twice.

I was also annoyed beyond belief at her second Oscar accpetance speech. The thing that bugged me the most was that TPTB had put a time limit on the speeches and cut off people who went over 30 seconds (or whatever) and lil' trailer park just went on and on like a huge Hollywood star while pretending to be all abashed and humble. It might not have bugged me so much if others had really tried to talk over the music but they (for various reasons) had had to cut their speeches short or make short speeches. Hilary, at that point, was the only person who didn't do that. That behavior and the content of her speech didn't mesh well with her "humble" attitude and it came across as extremely grating and fake. She usually does seem nice and truly thankful for her success, but the speech was annoying.

[kostgard]

I never believe anyone in Hollywood who spouts the "Gee y'all I'm just a lil' old girl who slept in my car and I don't know how I got here" crappola, from Hilary to Renee Zellweger. It makes me sick that some women think they have to apologize for wild success and act like they didn't earn it. Notice how famous men never pull that bull? Girls, you need to be more like the men. Admit you worked hard and had ambition, damn it. I promise nobody will come after you with a machete.

Very good point. You never hear those stories from the men. You never hear Jim Carrey go on about how he's just a working-class boy from Canada who somehow made it in showbiz. I guess it is a question of being afraid to be the first one to step out from the pack and say, "Dang it, I earned this." Given the lovely double standards that are still around, I'll bet some people would have some not-so-nice things to say about that person.

I really like Hilary, but I agree that she does much better with certain kinds of roles - those scrappy, strike-out-on-your-own and defy convention-type roles.

[Deleted]

Exactly. I tried breaking into the acting biz, and believe me, unless you know people, it takes a sharp, gutzy person. No dull as bricks bumpkin, that's for sure.

[Yossarian]

spinsterliz said:

I never believe anyone in Hollywood who spouts the "Gee y'all I'm just a lil' old girl who slept in my car and I don't know how I got here" crappola, from Hilary to Renee Zellweger. It makes me sick that some women think they have to apologize for wild success and act like they didn't earn it. Notice how famous men never pull that bull? Girls, you need to be more like the men. Admit you worked hard and had ambition, damn it. I promise nobody will come after you with a machete.

I totally agree. I hate this disingenuous "I don't know how all this success came to lil' ol' me" routine that seems to be required of Hollywood women. Of course they know how they got there - auditions, interminable acting classes, the casting couch, an army of publicists and cosmetic surgeons, starvation, pilfering scripts, networking at industry events, taking shitty roles if only for the exposure. Your post made me think about whether there are any women, at all, in Hollywood who do have the courage to own their success and I couldn't come up with very many. I think the older or "serious" breed of actresses are allowed to revel in their success - Jodie Foster, Judi Dench and the like. But the point with that type of actress is that they are not being marketed as sexy - when women want sexy roles or to be considered for them they seem to adopt this meeker than meek persona. Off the top of my head the only two exceptions to that are CZJ and Sharon Stone - but, in turn, they get described as ball-busting divas. How fabulous.

Topic: I still kind of like Hilary Swank but, yeah, equine is a good adjective for her.

[Deleted]

She's not pretty, but the woman is really talented. Any bets on who she'll hook up with next? My guess is some producer.

[Mutagen]

huntergrayson said:

Even Chloe Sevigny, Mutagen? Even Chloe?

LOL. To be fair, her pass is contingent upon me putting my fingers in my ears and going LALALALALALA every time someone brings up The Brown Bunny.

On the topic of HS' flogging the trailer park (that sounds like a euphemism for an illegal sex act, but I digress), I totally see where it grates. For me HS is really saved by the fact that she parcels it out in relatively small doses, in the sense that she tends to go away and STFU when it's not award season or she has a film coming out.

[kostgard]

On the topic of HS' flogging the trailer park (that sounds like a euphemism for an illegal sex act, but I digress), I totally see where it grates. For me HS is really saved by the fact that she parcels it out in relatively small doses, in the sense that she tends to go away and STFU when it's not award season or she has a film coming out.

Yes! Exactly. She shows up when she's got a movie to promote or when she's been nominated for an award, but the rest of the time I never see her and I never hear about her. I LOVE that. I wish more actors would learn that lesson. I don't need to know all the details of your love life, you don't need to put your life on display in a reality show, I don't need to know about your latest 9th grade "feud" with another actress.