A winner from the word go

Hilary Swank, the Best Actress Oscar award-winner, takes a walk on the wild side as a man in her new film. CHRISTA D'SOUZA finds her surprisingly feminine.

AT FIRST sight, Hilary Swank looks just like any other pretty starlet. It is only when I ask her to do her character from ``Boys Don't Cry'', the U.S. smash hit that won her the Best Actress award at the recent Oscars ceremony, that she takes my breath away.

Co-written and directed by Columbia graduate Kimberly Peirce and made for a minuscule $6 million, ``Boys Don't Cry'' is based on the true story of Brandon Teena, a charismatic teenage boy from Nebraska, who moved to Falls City and fell in love with one of the local girls.

In 1993, after he was brutally murdered, it emerged that Brandon Teena wasn't a boy at all, but a young woman named Teena Brandon, who had suffered a sexual identity crisis and decided to live life as a man.

It's difficult to pinpoint how the chatty, engaging Swank, whose first major break came via ``Beverly Hills, 90210'', actually does it. It's something about the way she runs her tongue over her upper lip, the manner in which she narrows her eyes; perhaps it's the way she minutely rearranges her shoulders.

Whatever it is, the model of Californian femininity sitting opposite me has suddenly transformed into someone who could quite easily give Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio a run for their money.

``Oh, I know, it's uncanny,'' giggles Swank, ``although when I see myself in the movie I think I look so much like my father! Actually, I imitated him a lot to prepare for the role. There's this guy thing that he does... He doesn't even know he does it, but whenever he walks into a room he checks himself in the mirror - look, like this.''

And suddenly, with one flattened palm against her head and a slight cock of an eyebrow, she has morphed into Brandon once again.

It really is most unsettling and throws up a whole load of fundamental questions about what we find sexually attractive and why. No wonder this film has been hailed by some critics as the most important movie about homosexuality ever to come out of Hollywood.``Well, that's what they say,'' she says, shyly, ``but it's all very, very surreal. My husband said to me, `Hilary, are you really absorbing what is going on? Are you feeling the excitement? Because I'm really starting to feel it.'

According to Kimberly Peirce, it took years to find an actress capable of taking on the role of Brandon. ``I saw lots of butch girls and transgenders,'' she explains, ``but they just didn't work on film... At first it was difficult getting actresses to try out for the role, because there was such a stigma attached to lesbianism in films. But after Ellen De Generes came out in 1998, there was a kind of sea change. Suddenly we were flooded with actresses who wanted to be Brandon. The problem was, none of them had any idea what it was to be butch. Stanislavsky always said the hardest thing to transcend was one's class. Well, my little variation on that is that the hardest thing to transcend is your sex.''

Just four weeks before shooting was due to start, Swank's audition reel came to Peirce's attention. Swank - whose previous experience, besides ``90210'', included tiny parts in ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ``The Next Karate Kid'' - had no props save for a thrift-store cowboy hat and some of her husband's clothes.

Peirce, who is bisexual, describes the moment Swank appeared on screen as a kind of epiphany.

``Here, for the first time, was this absolutely androgynous person who actually managed to blur the gender lines. She had this girl's mouth, but a boy's jaw and this gorgeous Adam's apple. And then there was this smile... Most of the girls didn't dare smile because they thought you couldn't be butch if you smiled''.

``I told her she could have the part if she wanted,'' recalls Peirce, ``but that she would have to transform herself completely, like Robert De Niro in ``Raging Bull''...

She had to pass for male in real life, because if she didn't the whole premise would have been a joke.''

To that end, Peirce took Swank to a barbershop in New York and persuaded a reluctant hairdresser to cut all her hair off.

Swank then set about ``strapping and packing'' herself, and began working out for two hours a day to remove any trace of body fat and thus accentuate her ears and jaw line.

Swank remembers the first time she hit the streets of New York in disguise.

``Everyone stared,'' she recalls, ``and then looked away. Some people thought I was a boy while others couldn't figure out what gender I was, and felt quite threatened. They were confused: there were a lot of them out there who might have been quite attracted to me and therefore questioned their own sexuality.

``At first I found the whole thing very lonely,'' she goes on. ``But then I got used to it and I would forget what I'd been like before. I remember my husband bringing me a picture of me with my hair way down to here and saying, ``Look. Hilary! This is what you used to look like!''

Part Spanish, part Native American and with a grandmother who is ``100 per cent English'', Swank was born 25 years ago in Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of a National Guard worker.

When she was three, the family moved to a trailer park in Portland, Oregon. ``There were a lot of white- trash characters around,'' she says cheerfully, ``but I don't regret any of it. I'm happy I had that experience.''

Entranced by the film ``ET'', Hilary decided she wanted to be an actress, an ambition her mother heartily approved of. When Hilary turned 16, they both moved to Los Angeles. ``I'm very lucky,'' admits Swank.

``My mum's been a huge instrumental force in my career. She always told me you could do anything you want if you put your mind to it. Think of the confidence that gave me.''

Less than two years later, Swank was playing Carey, the token single mother on `Beverly Hills, 90210', but it was not, by the sounds of it, the warm, bonding experience she'd expected.

``I came into the show and everybody already knew each other really well,'' she says. ``I can't say it was the most welcoming group of people I've ever met.

``I always wanted to do some great movie, of course, but it was very catch-22. In order to get a great movie you have to have been in a great movie, but then how do you get the great movie?''

Naturally, when Swank heard Peirce was desperately looking for an actress to play Brandon, she jumped at the chance, paying for her own ticket to New York in order to audition.

``You know, a lot of people ask me what my motivation was for doing this film,'' says Swank.

``It certainly wasn't the money, that's for sure - when we started shooting, we had just $1.7 million to make it.''

``No. I wanted to do it because I was so magnetised by the idea of someone following a dream. Brandon was an inspiration to me because he was living his life the way he wanted to.''

``I'm not gay'', says Swank. ``But it definitely was an amazing experience for me. And you know what else is great? Having all these lesbians and transgenders coming up to me and thanking me for playing Brandon - that felt so good!''

``I have to say,'' she adds, her eyes welling up with tears, ``this movie brings real passion to my life. Every time I talk about it I get emotional, because the story means so much to me.''

Although life is pretty much the same in certain respects - Swank and her husband still do their own laundry and her mother still lives 10 minutes away from their tiny, animal-filled house in the Pacific Palisades (``It's always 10 minutes away - wherever I live'') - it has also irrevocably changed.

Her childhood hero Steven Spielberg, is one of her biggest fans. ``He said he saw the movie and I broke his heart. I could retire after that!''

As for the age-old question of whether she thinks fame and wealth will change her?

``Oh, I don't think so,'' she says, eyes shining with sweet optimism.

``I grew up in a trailer park with no money at all and I think that will always keep me grounded. Yes, I fly first-class now and I have a nice car, but my background will always keep me aware of the meaning of life.''

@ The Telegraph Group Limited, 2000.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Entertainment
Next     : Film Review: ''Elizabeth''