Hilary Swank may have taken a punch in the boxing ring, but that was nothing compared to flying weightless, she says. Swank stars as an astronaut on her way to Mars in Netflix's new series "Away."

"Pretending that you're in zero G, zero gravity, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of effort to make it look effortless," she says.

"We were harnessed by the lower part of our hips, and they were acting as a pendulum. So we'd squeeze our glutes to move us forward, and then squeeze our abs to move us backwards. But the whole time we're squeezing these muscles so tight and trying not to talk funny because of it," she grins.

"The whole idea of being in zero G, you just naturally want to talk like you're in slo-o-o-w motion — which people don't do in zero gravity. So it was, I think, for all of us a lot more challenging than we realized it would be."

Swank is up to the task. The winner of two Academy Awards as best actress — for her role as a transgender youth in "Boys Don't Cry" and as a pugilist in "Million Dollar Baby" — Swank has been acting since she was practically a toddler.

"I love the idea of exploring another human being and what makes them work. I just love the human condition, what makes people tick," she says.

She was 9 when she starred in her first play.

"My mom always said to me, 'Stop staring, stop staring, Hilary.' I was always staring and observing and watching what makes people work. I remember one of our teachers had us write a script and act it out in front of the class. I remember feeling like something just came alive in me that I'd never felt before. And it's one of those inexplicable things that you just can't put into words. I didn't realize at the time you could make a career out of it, but I just kept doing local theater and doing plays and finally realized, 'Hey, wait a second, you can be an actor.'"

Swank worked her way up, landing a role on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" when she was 18 and her first big break in "The Next Karate Kid" two years later.

Since her notable splash in films, she's played everything from a suffragette to Amelia Earhart. But she's never been impressed by her colorful resume.

"I'm not one to ever expect anything in my life, but I was hoping I would get the opportunity to test my chops and challenge myself," she says.

"I was just lucky with that opportunity when 'Boys Don't Cry' came along because they didn't want someone who was famous. It was the right time. I'm very thankful for that and for the opportunities that have arisen since then, after winning the Oscar. I never thought about it. I never expected it to happen that quickly."

At this point Swank, 46, can be choosy about what she does. She liked "Away," she says, because it views the challenge of space in the context of family.

"The commander of this mission to Mars is a woman, and that's not the drama of the story," she says. "I think that shows how far we've come ... working towards equality.

"The drama has these richly different racial backgrounds; these people who are on this journey working toward a goal together while having this gravitational pull to Earth ... all of us having these families that made it a love story," she says.

"So my character was dealing with this dream come true of being on a mission to Mars, this dream come true of being a mother, which was unexpected; and, then, growing these deep relationships with these other human beings she was on this mission with, and breaking through these stereotypes to see what connects us all, which is humanity."