How Hilary Swank Rebounded From Homelessness and Extreme Poverty to Build A Life She Calls “Pure Heaven” With Her Newborns

Hilary Swank may be a name that calls to mind red carpets and Academy Awards, but that wasn’t always the case!

Before her rise to stardom, Hilary Swank and her mother moved to California to chase the young artist’s dreams. At the time, the two were suffering from poverty and homelessness, with Swank saying they had “just $75 in savings and spent two months living out of their car”. She would later tell the Daily Mail about this point in her life, saying, “Growing up in a lower-income family, you don’t have the resources to make ends meet and you have to find creative ways to get by.”

After living in their car for a time, Swank said they found temporary housing in a vacant building, “We had a friend who was selling their house and so they said, ‘You know, there’s no furniture, but you can stay there at night. And then, during the day, you have to leave so we can try and sell it. So we got air mattresses. Blew the air mattresses up. Slept on the air mattresses. And left in the morning.”

Her struggles were not to last, however. She picked up small roles, starting with her first film performance in 1992’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” From there, she would continue garnering her resume, with her first Oscar nomination and win coming from 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry” and her second for “Million Dollar Baby”. During her second acceptance speech, she even made a shout-out to her mother watching at home, telling her that living in the car was worth it.

Today, Swank lives a fairly quiet Hollywood life with her husband, Philip Schneider, and their twin infants. Swank posted a notification for the birth of her twins just last week, writing that she had finally attained “pure heaven”.