Hilary Swanks Reveals How Much She Was Paid For Boys Don't Cry 

Oscar gold may be priceless, but the hard-earned payout that helped

Hilary Swank get there didn’t necessarily fill her coffers.

During a recent appearance on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show

, the two-time Oscar winner revealed that she was paid just $3,000 to work on the film that would eventually win her her first statuette:

, I was 24 years old,” she said during a dinner-style round-table chat involving

filmmaker Ava DuVernay, actress Connie Britton and Miss USA Deshauna Barber. In her groundbreaking performance, Swank played real-life transgender man Brandon Teena, who was raped and murdered in 1993.

“I made $3,000. In order to have health insurance, you have to make $5,000. So I didn’t even know that I didn’t have health insurance until I went and tried to get a prescription filled,” Swank, 42, recalled. “They said, ‘That’s $160.’ I went, ‘Um, did you try my insurance?’ They said, ‘Mmm-hmm.’ I had an Academy Award, no health insurance.”

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Swank would go on to win a second Best Actress Oscar five years later for her pull-no-punches turn as an ill-fated female boxer in Clint Eastwood‘s 2004 drama

. The victory, which solidified her reputation as one of Hollywood’s most versatile and astonishing actresses, didn’t appear to help her at the negotiating table.

“Then I win my second Academy Award, and the next couple movies later, I get offered a movie,” she said. “But the male hadn’t had any kind of critical success, but had been in a movie where he was

. And he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000. That’s the truth. The truth,” she added, to the shock of her companions at the interview.

“So I said, ‘No,’ ” she added. “And then they went and found a newcomer who did it for $50,000. So they made a savings of [$450,000], probably to give the guy his bonuses.”

These days Swank, who recently appeared in the 2014 indie drama

, has been branching out beyond Hollywood. The actress recently announced that she’s launching a line of athletic and leisure wear called Mission Statement, which she describes as a mix of “high performance and high fashion.”

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