Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank has spoken about the importance of random acts of kindness in everyday life.
Speaking to RTE.ie about her new film Ordinary Angels, in which she plays Sharon, a struggling hairdresser who finds a renewed sense of purpose when she meets a widowed father (Alan Ritchson) who is working hard to care for his two daughters.
With his youngest critically ill and waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon single-handedly rallies an entire community to help.
The Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry star says that she believes such acts of kindness "can make a difference in someone's life".
When asked if she related to her character, she said, "I did. She perseveres. I definitely persevere. She wears her heart on her sleeve, which I definitely do.
"But I wouldn't go on as far as to say I'm an angel like her," she added. "It really took a lot of her life to help someone else, and I find that to be just extraordinary and a reminder that we don't all have to do something as grand as that, but we can do something, just random acts of kindness that can make a difference in someone's life, every day."
The film also explores the problem of medical debt in the US. When asked what one issue in the US healthcare system she would try to eradicate if she had the power, she responded, "I don't know what the answer is really, but I do know that something needs to be fixed and I am grateful for RIP Medical Debt, which is this organization that we partnered with when the movie came out, that eradicates people's debilitating health bills."
She continued, "On one hand you have a something that ails you so badly. Getting an organ transplant is not inexpensive. Then, your life is safe but then you're drowning under these bills, which is really no life.
"There are ways to get help. If I were a politician, I could probably figure out a way to fix it. I do know that we need to help each other wherever we can and however we can," she said.
Ordinary Angels is in cinemas from Friday 26 April.
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