Hilary Swank: I completely identified with my Away character's struggle to balance work and family

Hilary Swank has said she “completely identified” with the astronaut she plays in her new sci-fi series — because of the character’s battle to manage her job and family.

The Oscar winner, 46, stars as Emma Green, a US astronaut and former navy pilot in command of the first space mission to Mars in Netflix show Away.

The actress said she felt at home in the role in part because it explored the balancing act between work and home, as she herself had to do when disappearing from Hollywood to care for her ill father: “I completely identified with this character. I’m an independent woman who is very career-driven and I’ve been pursuing my acting dream since I was 15.

“For me, one of these times was when my dad needed a lung transplant and I knew I could help him recover and heal so I took quite a bit of time off work. There was no question about this in my mind. That’s what we all do.”

She also highlighted the show’s refusal to portray her character’s husband, a Nasa chief engineer played by The Good Wife’s Josh Charles, as “emasculated” because he stays at home with the couple’s daughter. “Josh’s character actually champions Emma to make it for both of them. That’s rare,” she said.

Swank, who won best actress Oscars for Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don’t Cry, said having more women behind the camera was broadening the range of experiences seen on TV.

“We had a number of female directors and we also had a female showrunner,” she added.

“That made me feel like we were going to be able to get all different perspectives onto the screen, which is what is most important.”

Away is out on Netflix on Friday