Hilary Swank

OF ‘ALASKA DAILY’ ON ABC

levity that he brings to his work.

“Alaska Daily” brings you back to television in a period when you seem to be doing more work there, especially in limited series. Was that the plan for you?

I go where the good stories are, just like a journalist. I follow great stories with great parts, and if I want to tell them, it doesn’t matter where they’re told ... just that they get told. I’m really grateful to the people who give these stories homes, and I keep trying to honor that.

Did you know the movie work of “Alaska Daily” creator and executive producer Tom Mccarthy, who won an Oscar for co-writing “Spotlight,” before signing up for the series?

Oh, sure. It was the draw for me to step into this. “The Station Agent,” I loved that movie; it was super-unique and

ahead of its time, and I like the mix of quirky drama and

I asked him what his goal was for making this show, and one of them was the importance of showing good journalism ... and of showing what the plight of a journalist is now. There’s such sensationalism out there, it’s easy to flip through things and just get quick snippets, but where’s the

whole thing? It’s an interesting time for that profession.

Though you’ve made movies set in Alaska, you hadn’t actually been there before starting “Alaska Daily.” Did you have a concept of the state?

It was very different than I imagined. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so I had evergreens around me as far as the eye could see ... and I imagined that was what Alaska looked like, just with more depth, but it doesn’t. It does look like another planet, like a tundra, nothing I’d ever seen

before.