Hilary Swank adds to her myriad roles with Katherine Winter, a missionary-turned-skeptic in the innovative thriller "The Reaping." The film details Winter's experiences as she enters a small town experiencing something beyond peculiar - the second coming of the Ten Biblical Plagues. As Winters attempts to reveal the scientific meaning behind the occurrences, her world whirls into a suspenseful, religiously based thriller. In a conference call, Swank discussed her interest in this script as well as her experiences dealing with such a controversial topic.
Question: As a two-time Oscar winner, I'm guessing that you're now afforded a greater opportunity to choose your own roles. How does your decision-making process work?
Hilary Swank: You know what, I simply go by the script. It's all script. It's just my reaction to the script, whether it be, you know, challenging a new way or, I mean, it doesn't matter what genre it is as long as I laugh or cry or I'm scared if [it's] suspenseful.
Q: So it's kind of a case-by-case basis.
HS: Completely. I'm not actually out there searching for things. I just try and find something when I'm reading that moves me in some way or scares me in some way, but ultimately challenges me.
Q: Which parts [of the film] were scary [for you]? Were you surprised when you saw the final product?
HS: You know that's actually a great question because even though I read the script, and you obviously act it in the movie, when I watched the movie I got scared at certain points. And all my friends looked at me like, but you know what happens. And yet I forgot that some of those things happened.
Q: What did you need to do to prepare for your role? Did you have to go back and re-read parts of the Bible or anything along those lines?
HS: I played a person who was a missionary and who had faith in the beginning, but then loses her faith and becomes a professor of debunking miracles and myths. What I did was - there's a lot of books out there. And there's a thing called "The Skeptical Inquirer" which is this magazine that Stephen Hopkins, our director, had me read. And I read these things and the parts of the Bible that I read were just about the plagues. I was just really interested in reading about them. But yeah I did actually a lot of reading just because I'd never really heard of anything like these Skeptical Inquirers and it was really interesting that these people believe that there's a scientific answer for everything. So it's great to see all these different outlooks.
Q: I know that "The Reaping" has something to say about both faith and scientific fact. I wanted to know where faith fits in your life. And between the presence of God and scientific truth, what you feel to be more important in your life?
HS: Well I definitely have more a faith - I'm more faith-driven than skeptic-driven. It was definitely interesting though to read about these people who are skeptics and their ideas of it and how they feel like there's a scientific answer for everything. But I'm definitely more on the faith side.
Q: The press release kind of talked about the battle of [science] versus religion [in the film] and put the two kind of like ideas with a lot of opposition. Do you think the movie really only looks at it in terms of opposition, or does it brings sort of reconciliation to the two ideas?
HS: I think that it brings a place for both to be seen. There's room for both of them and one person isn't going to think, you know, oh it's more one way than the other. It definitely... makes you think about it and makes you think about these types of things. But I think more than anything it's an entertaining movie. I mean, it's a fun movie and it certainly makes you think.
Q: You've played quite a few troubled characters [in the past]. Do you see yourself being in a comedic role anytime in the near future?
HS: Yeah I actually have "P.S., I Love You" coming out this year. And that's definitely a romantic comedy, and so you should check that out too. It was a really fun movie to do and very different from this movie and very different from "Million Dollar Baby" [2004] and different from "Freedom Writers" [2007].
Q: Since the film is heavy on special effects, you had to do a lot of blue screen work. Which is more challenging for you - coming up with a complex human emotion while acting with people or playing fear against something you can't see?
HS: Well it's definitely different and I wouldn't say one is more challenging than the other. What I love is that it's just different. It's different than what I've done before. It's doing something on a blue screen and you don't have anything to react off [of] that's right in front of you. So it's definitely different and mixes it up and that's what I love. I love that new challenge. It was really fun to see all the locusts that weren't really there when I watched the movie - to see what I was reacting off of which was nothing and just pretend. But then to see them actually on the screen ... it's great how a film can do that.
