Hilary Swank
The Next Karate Kid is a 1994 film starring Hilary Swank and Pat Morita. It is the fourth and final movie in The Karate Kid series. In September 1997, Swank was cast as single mother Carly Reynolds on Beverly Hills, 90210. She was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998. Swank later said that she was devastated at being cut from the show, thinking, “If I’m not good enough for 90210, I’m not good enough for anything.”
As it turned out, the firing was a lucky break for Swank, freeing her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. Swank reduced her body fat to seven percent in preparation for the role. Many critics hailed hers as the best female performance of 1999; her co-star, Chloë Sevigny, had her performance singled out as well. Swank’s work ultimately won her the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress. She subsequently won the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe again for playing a boxer in Clint Eastwood’s 2004 Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby, a role for which she underwent training in the ring and gained 19 pounds of muscle.
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