Source: Entertainment Weekly

Hilary Swank’s time on Beverly Hills, 90210 was brief, but two of her castmates say it wasn’t the future Oscar winner’s fault.

Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, who played besties Donna Martin and Kelly Taylor on all 10 seasons of the teen soap, talked about Swank joining the show’s eighth season on the latest episode of of their 9021OMG rewatch podcast.

Swank portrayed Carly, a love interest for Ian Ziering’s Steve, but she came and went after a startlingly brief 16 episodes, despite having been brought on as a regular cast member. Introduced as a single mother with a young son, Carly worked at everyone’s favorite hangout, the Peach Pit.

Spelling, the daughter of 90210 producer Aaron Spelling, suggested that lackluster writing led viewers to dislike Carly, which led to her dismissal from the show. “I didn’t think the writing was great in this episode,” she said of Swank’s introduction in the season 8 premiere.

9021OMG producer Amy Sugarman was frank. “I’ll just tell you,” she said on the podcast. “I always thought that Hillary Swank was bad at this part. That was always sort of my notion looking back on it, remembering, ‘Oh, Hillary Swank was not good.'”

She changed her mind after another viewing: “It’s not that she wasn’t good. She actually is good.”

Spelling added, “It’s that they wrote her so ridiculously.” She questioned, “How much disservice do writers and producers do introducing a new character to an audience of any show?”

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In any case, things worked out okay for Swank. She ended up winning her first Oscar for one of her next roles.

“Because she gets let go from this show early, and that’s why she got Boys Don’t Cry, because she was free to audition,” Sugarman said. “So she won the Oscar because the 90210 writers did her dirty and the fans just thought she sucked.”

Swank won a second Oscar in the Best Actress category for her turn in 2004’s Million Dollar Baby.

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