The actress let her dress do the talking by keeping her accessories to a minimum, opting for a black clutch and delicate earrings.
GALLERY LINKS:
– Events Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences’ 10th Annual Governors Awards – November 18 2018
“It was something that I wrote for my family,” said Chomko, appearing on a panel with stars Hilary Swank and Robert Forster. “It’s about the things that happened during my grandmother’s Alzheimer’s disease…a place of grief and time traveling.”
Chomko said she wrote the first draft seven years ago, and joked that was followed with 40 rewrites before the story became a film starring Swank as Bridget, who returns home to Chicago at the urging of her brother (Michael Shannon) to engage in an emotional battle with her father (Forster) over who is best to make decisions for her ailing mother, portrayed by Blythe Danner.
Moderator Pete Hammond asked about the humor Chomko infuses into a tragic story. “I grew up in Chicago we were a family of laughers…the only thing we took seriously was God and Catholicism, and everything else was a pile of jokes,” Chomko said. “You laugh the hardest when your heart is about to break.”
She added that the story deals with the universal reality that the world does not stop when a loved one gets a difficult diagnosis.
Of course, not everyone gets the opportunity to watch a version of one’s family portrayed by such a distinguished cast. “What can I say? I’m speechless, and honored,” Chomko said.
Forster said he took the role because “it was on the page…I knew right away it was the role for me. I’ve been a parent for more than 200 years if you (add) up the ages of my children.”
Swank said that even though Chomko also served as the writer, as well as the director, she let the actors make the dialogue and the characters their own.
Swank said the role of Bridget was perhaps her most vulnerable because it came the closest to herself. “I’m not boxing, I’m not dressing as a boy,” Swank said. “I’m playing a real woman who is trying to figure it out. That’s very vulnerable.
“Right now, we have a lot of content out there, and a lot of the posters and ads are these really big movies, with someone in an outfit, climbing walls, that have superpowers,” Swank added. “(What They Had) is a slice of life.”
GALLERY LINKS:
– Events Deadline Contenders – November 3 2018
GALLERY LINKS:
– Events What They Had Premiere – October 9 2018
Illness changes things. It changes how we live. What we care about. Who we make time for.
For Hilary Swank, who moved her father into her Los Angeles home three years ago as he underwent a risky lung transplant, it also changed how she dated.
“It’s almost a great way to weed out people,” says Swank, 44, who recently married social venture entrepreneur Philip Schneider. ” ‘Wait, you live with your dad?’ The reaction to that helps you move through things faster.” She and Schneider, who were set up on a blind date, have “that same ethos and belief in being there for your family,” she says. “That started it off right.”
Familial devotion is at the heart of Swank’s latest film, “What They Had,” one of the first roles she took after caring for her father. In the multi-generational drama, Swank plays Bridget, a long-distance daughter coping with her mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s. Her father (Robert Forster) argues he can care for his wife (Blythe Danner) better than the Chicago memory-care facility that his son (Michael Shannon), who lives nearby, is advocating. It’s Christmas, and no one has the answers.
Swank says little prepares you for becoming an aging parent’s proxy. “There were moments when I was taking care of my dad where you’re not confident, when you know that in helping make a decision, (it) could be good or bad – and that was something you were going to have to live with, no matter which way it went. So it was scary.” Continue reading Hilary Swank’s perspective on life, love changed after caring for ailing father
