HILARY SWANK

he Oscar winner for Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don’t Cry stars in the new drama series Alaska Daily (Oct. 6 on ABC). Swank, 48, plays Eileen Fitzgerald, an investigative journalist seeking redemption at a newspaper in Anchorage after a story she’s pursuing causes her dismissal from her high-profile job in Manhattan.

TYou’ve had some incredible roles. Do you ever absorb parts of your characters? You can’t help but do that, especially with the roles that I’ve been so blessed to play. I play a lot of reallife people who blow open my blinders of how I look and walk in the world. Of course, that’s going to forever change the way I see and view things. It’s such a gift.

What’s your take on Eileen? I call her no-nonsense, and she doesn’t suffer fools. I don’t think she’s rude; she’s very New York, very matter-offact, and she calls people on what she feels is BS. She’s hell-bent on continuing to reveal that the article she wrote was true, that her source was good and to keep digging deeper into that specific investigation.

How are missing women at the heart of Alaska Daily? When she goes to dinner with her old boss, who’s courting her to come to Alaska, Eileen sees pictures of these women, and under

stands—as she starts doing research—that this is a huge, horrific situation, and nobody is investigating. Another woman disappears and gets forgotten, and another. Even saying that gives me chills. There’s no world in which that should ever be happening, especially now in 2022.

You once said, “I cut coupons and believe in buying toilet paper and toothpaste in bulk. It’s who I am.” Is it still who you are? was raised in a way to make ends meet, and that’s just in your bones. Why wouldn’t I look for a deal? I’m a human being. I work hard for my money. Growing up the way I did, we needed our dollars to go as far as they could. Why would I want that to be different now?

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