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Sitting down a few minutes later for an interview, she gobbled a bowl of penne and tomato sauce between answers. And she appeared to have an actual behind.
This Oscar-winner's repertoire does not include stuck-up, skin-and-bones, high-maintenance movie star.
"I'm not. I don't know. I'm just not," the 27-year-old said, shrugging over her low-key, entourage-free promotional fly-in to Toronto Monday. "I guess I'm just not in it for the celebrity of it. I'm in it because I love it."
Still, celebrity has its welcome privileges. Courtesy of a private jet, Swank and director Charles Shyer didn't miss an L.A. night's sleep to do their duty here to promote The Affair Of The Necklace, their film opening Friday.
It's based on the true story of Jeanne de la Motte-Valois, a French woman fighting to reclaim her family's land and title in 18th-century France. When her appeals through traditional channels fail, she perpetrates an elaborate con on the country's most powerful people, including the Cardinal of all France and Queen Marie Antoinette.
It's a role Swank was offered before she went from unknown to Best Actress Oscar-winner in 1999 for her performance in Boys Don't Cry, the tiny independent film about the life and murder of a smalltown girl who passed herself off as a boy. Swank was paid $75 a day for that film.
Her first post-Oscar project could have come with an enormous payday, the director concedes.
"Right after, I'm sure, I know, that people said to her, 'Why are you doing this? We can get you $3 million or whatever'," Shyer said.
But Swank stayed the course, heading off to Prague for the Necklace shoot and the sort of salary that comes from a lavish-looking period piece that was actually made for less than US $25 million.
"She's an artist, not a movie star," Shyer said. "I do believe Hilary is driven by art. You can tell by her choices."
The film's costumes were as tight as its budget. Swank, who'd spent Boys with her womanly figure strapped down and disguised, spent Necklace with her assets strapped up and emphasized.
Money isn't her motivator, she said.
"I don't have any other responsibilities other than myself and my husband," said Swank, who has been married to actor Chad Lowe for four years.
"We don't have children. I don't know if it can always stay like that. You know, you can never say, 'What if?' I hope. But priorities change.
"But mine right now ... thank God it's the way it is, because it's given me the opportunity to be part of a movie because I love it."
Her husband is among those who saw similarities in the scrappy natures of Swank and her character in Necklace.
"She said, 'I'm doing this because it's right,' and that's always just been my way. Chad tells me I buck the system all the time.
"The first time he told me that, I said, 'I do not!' I was all defensive.
"Then I realized that's a compliment, because I realized people who are constantly told, 'No, you can't do that. Don't try to,' are the people who strive for something bigger," she said.
"That's my whole life. I mean, I grew up in a trailer park. My whole life was, 'You can do whatever you want, Hilary, you just have to work hard and put your mind to it'."