Alaska Daily review – this astonishingly basic drama would be better without Hilary Swank
Like a Hallmark version of True Detective: Night Country, this small-town investigative drama will do nothing for Swank’s career
January 2024
Natalie Portman: method acting is a ‘luxury that women can’t afford’
Oscar winner says the needs of children and partners prevent women from using the technique, often associated with male actors like Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis
May 2023
Ask Anita
My boyfriend of seven years always wanted kids. Now we’re 35, I’m ready – and he’s changed his mind
He shocked me by saying he doesn’t want to bring anyone into a world that is getting worse. I love him, but my chance to be a mother is slipping away
March 2021
Hear me out
Hear me out: why PS I Love You isn't a bad movie
Continuing our series of writers sticking up for loathed films is a defence of the commercially successful yet critically lambasted romance
September 2020
US understands my creative ambition, says British star of Away
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Away; Planet Earth: A Celebration; Strike and more - review
TV review
Away review – Hilary Swank space drama fails to launch
Houston, we have a parent: what draws sci-fi to motherhood?
March 2020
The Hunt review – gory Trump-baiting satire is more hype than horror
The delayed liberal elites vs rural ‘deplorables’ thriller isn’t quite the political hot potato it’s being sold as, offering boilerplate B-movie schlock instead
October 2019
Boys Don't Cry at 20: in praise of the divisive transgender drama
In 1999, Hillary Swank won plaudits for playing Brandon Teena, a murdered trans man, but in the years since, a backlash has been brewing
August 2019
The Hunt: director breaks silence over film where elites kill 'deplorables'
Craig Zobel, whose controversial satirical thriller was dropped after a backlash, has claimed that people have misinterpreted his intention
June 2019
I Am Mother review – all-female Netflix thriller is a solid sci-fi watch
Newcomer Clara Rugaard impresses as a girl raised by a robot who finds her life thrown into question when an invader, played by Hilary Swank, arrives
February 2019
What They Had review – polite portrait of a family coping with Alzheimer's
Blythe Danner plays a woman with dementia whose husband and children must decide whether it’s time for her to move into a care home
August 2018
The G2 interview
Hilary Swank on grit, love, trans rights – and her three-year screen break
As she returns to acting, the double Oscar-winner talks about her love of ‘people who persevere’, the legacy of her role in Boys Don’t Cry, and why she grew up feeling like an outsider
March 2018
Trust review – Danny Boyle's Getty drama offers shallow pleasures
Money talks: Hollywood's new obsession with the Getty empire
July 2016
Film blog
Extreme weight loss and tooth extraction: when method acting goes too far
Which star didn’t bathe for four months? Who became a cabbie? Our guide to actors who take their art to new levels
July 2015
Hilary Swank scaling back acting career to take care of ailing father
Star of Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby says she has ‘passed’ on roles to help look after her father after his lung transplant
April 2015
Hilary Swank and Tom Wilkinson to star in Holocaust denier drama
Hilary Swank: 'A long way to go before transphobia wiped out'
