Tori Spelling reveals A-list actress who 'hysterically cried' on set of Beverly Hills, 90210 after being FIRED

Tori Spelling says Hilary Swank 'was hysterically crying' upon her firing from Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1998.

Spelling, 52, said on the 90210MG podcast Friday that Swank - who played the role of Carly Reynolds on 16 episodes of the eighth season of the series - took things hard when she was let go.

Spelling - who played Donna Martin on the 90s Fox staple - said she and the future  Oscar-winner, 51, 'had become quite close,' as she often 'hung out' with Swank and her husband at the time, Chad Lowe.

'I was kind of her safe place on set, and she would talk to me about everything,' Spelling said of their friendship. 

Spelling described the circumstances that led to Swank's dismissal from the cast. 

'We were all in our dressing rooms,' Spelling said 'And [Swank] said, "[Late 90210 producer] Paul Waigner wants to talk to me in his office - do you know what it's about?"' 

Spelling said she informed Swank she was not sure what the meeting was focused on, but waited for her after it was done.

'So she goes in, and she comes back, and she's crying, and she comes into my dressing room,' Spelling said.

Swank emerged from the meeting, saying she 'got let go' and was 'being fired' from the program, Spelling said.

The daughter of late Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling and wife Candy Spelling said she had been caught off-guard by the news of her friend's firing.

'I hadn't heard any of this - we didn't know,' Spelling said.

Spelling said Swank was panicked that her Hollywood career was doomed after the professional setback.

'She was like, "Oh my God - if I get fired off of 90210, I'm never gonna make it,' said Spelling, adding that she wasn't clear on the exact wording.

Said Spelling, 'Everyone out there, please, this is from my perspective and my memory's sake. I'm not gonna get it verbatim what she said - but from this is how I saw it go down.'

Spelling said the termination from the series was a blessing in disguise for Swank, as it freed her up to audition for her Oscar-winning turn as Brandon Teena in 1999's Boys Don't Cry. 

'She would not have been able to get that role, do that role and then win an Academy Award,' Spelling  said of Swank, who paired her Best Actress Oscar win in 2000 with a second, five years later, for her work in 2004's Million Dollar Baby.

On 90210, Swank portrayed a Peach Pit server and single mom who was a love interest of Ian Ziering's character Steve Sanders.

The actress, speaking with Conan O'Brien in 2014, said she had been 'devastated' by losing the gig on the show, which had waned in popularity after the late Luke Perry had left the series.

'I was on 90210 in the eighth season when no one watched it anymore, and Luke Perry was long gone,' Swank said, 'so I was fired off the show at that point.

'I'm thinking, no one watches this show anymore, and I got fired off of a show that no one watches.'

Swank said she was cast in her breakthrough Boys Don't Cry role two months later.

'I looked at it as a silver lining,' Swank said. 'Like, it's always such a reminder, when something bad happens, there's something else that could be looming around the corner.'