Hilary Swank reveals she couldn't afford health insurance after winning her first Oscar

Hilary Swank has revealed that just because you may be a critically acclaimed actor, doesn't mean it will be reflected in your finances.

Days after picking up her Oscar for her role in Boys Don't Cry in 2000, she was hit with reality when she went to pick up some medication from the pharmacy, only to be told that she couldn't because she didn't have health insurance.

Speaking to The Independent, the 49-year-old recalled, "It seems so obvious, right? I'm winning an Academy Award, I'm super famous, it's all glamorous...

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"But I made $US3000 (about $4600) the year I did Boys Don't Cry, and you had to make $US5000 (about $7600) in order to qualify for health insurance."

She said many people in her life had the same misconception, even her facialist.

"The next time I saw her, she asked if I had come in a limo!" the actress said.

"It's a great reminder that you can't judge a book by its cover."

Swank would go on to win another Oscar for her role in Million Dollar Baby in 2005, but she shares by then she did indeed qualify for health insurance.

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The actress has recently starred in a new film titled Ordinary Angels, playing a small-town hairdresser who drops everything to help a young girl waiting for a liver transplant and her family who are unable to pay for it.

The P.S. I Love You star said she was influenced by her late father to take on the project.

"My father was a recipient of a lung transplant, so organ donation is a big, big thing for me and talking about it," she told the US Today show.

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"This movie came about three months after my dad had passed, so I got this opportunity.

"I feel like it was sent from my dad to tell a story about an extraordinary human being and family and I think it would have been my dad's favorite movie of mine."

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