The 48-year-old star and executive producer exclusively showed ET around the Vancouver set in September.
Hilary Swank made an exciting announcement on Wednesday, revealing she's pregnant with twins! But weeks before her pregnancy news, the two-time Oscar winner took over the ET mic for an exclusive set tour of her new ABC drama, Alaska Daily.
The drama series, which debuts Thursday, follows Swank's Eileen Fitzgerald, a talented and award-winning investigative journalist who leaves her high-profile New York life behind after a fall from grace to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage, Alaska, on a journey to find both personal and professional redemption. She soon finds herself at the center of a years-old cold case involving the death of a missing woman who was abducted when she was a teenager.
"I call my character, whose name is Eileen, a truth seeker," Swank says to the ET camera as she shows off the Vancouver set, before referring to the mystery at the center of her quest. "So, this is what brings her here. And this, by the way, is really happening in real life and something we need to get to the bottom of. And so hopefully, the show will shine a bright spotlight on that."
Swank also played interviewer, turning the cameras on her Alaska Daily co-stars -- and introduced viewers to Moon, her rescue dog who accompanies her on set -- as they previewed the new series.
Created by Spotlight's Tom McCarthy, the actress credits him for being "one of the biggest reasons why I'm a part of the show."
"I've been a fan of his work since Station Agent. Obviously, it's not his first foray into journalistic storytelling, something he does very well, and he told me what the show was about and what it was encompassing. And the character is a strong woman who is very driven to find the truth. She's a truth seeker. And all of those things just enticed me," Swank says later in a formal interview, adding it was "important" for her to be a producer on the project because of "the collaborative process."
The first episode, Swank reveals, touches on many topical issues -- from fake news to buried journalism stories to cases of missing Indigenous people to the treatment of women. Swank expressed optimism that as the series unfolds, they'll be able to incorporate real headlines into the DNA of its stories.
"What the beauty is of journalism and the beauty of storytelling is that we have that ability to shine a light on things and give them a broader audience. More eyes. I think about some of the things I've done in the past from Boys Don't Cry and starting a conversation that then gets people talking about something that needs change," she says. "That's one of the great things about being a storyteller is you have that ability to hopefully affect change for the positive in the long run."
When viewers first meet her character, Eileen, Swank described her as a "complete fish out of water," especially after relocating from a big metropolitan city like New York to Anchorage.
She shared that in preparation to familiarize herself with the complexities of being a working journalist, she and McCarthy worked with many of the same journalists he went to for guidance while making Spotlight. "They've been so generous with their time and their experience and hearing firsthand how they tackle something," Swank says. "It's one of the great joys of being an actor. You get to walk in these people's shoes in a real meaningful way and see through their eyes. It's really life-enriching."
Swank recalled filming on location in Alaska for parts of episodes 1 and 2 were particularly exhilarating, as her husband, Philip Schneider, was able to come along for the ride.
"I've been to Alaska and just before we started the show, my husband had his birthday in Alaska because it was on his bucket list to go there. We were in really remote Alaska. We didn't have any service or anything and that was really fun and it really is the last frontier," she says. "I grew up in Washington state, so I had all this imagination of what Alaska would be like. I thought it would be Washington on steroids, but it's so different. I didn't know what tundra meant until you go there. One of the great things about the show is that they spent the money to have us go to Alaska because Alaska is a character in the show. You don't get the expansive beauty and mystery of Alaska unless you're there."
As for what viewers can expect when they tune in to Alaska Daily, Swank believes it will capture people's interest in investigative journalism.
"It's a show that I find really intriguing. It's smart. It's funny. It deals with real life. And with real life there is drama, but there's also levity and it encapsulates everything. And journalism doesn't only cover really heavy stuff, there's light stuff too. In a paper, you get the gamut through A to D, and you'll see all of that. The whole rainbow."
Alaska Daily premieres Thursday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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