SWANK! - actress Hilary Swank discusses her career, and role in the film 'Boys Don't Cry' - Interview

Interview, April, 2000

Ingrid Sischy

When Hilary Swank read the script for Boys Don't Cry, she didn't know ... that its story of Brandon Teena and his small-town tragedy was a true one. But as the extraordinary reaction to the movie--including several awards for Swank and her co-star Chloe Sevigny--has revealed, it is the very reality embodied in Brandon's life that has triggered a powerful response that transcends gender and sexuality. Interview spoke to Swank just after the news broke about her Oscar nomination.

INGRID SISCHY: So where the hell are you?

HILARY SWANK: I'm in Savannah, Georgia, filming a movie called The Gift.

IS: Is there a TV set available? Because there's big Oscar-nomination news for you.

HS: [laughs] I know.

IS: Oh, I thought I was going to be the one to tell you.

HS: [laughs] Nope. I know by all the flowers in my hotel room.

IS: How has the response to Boys Don't Cry affected your life? You probably didn't expect so much from this story--a teenage girl, Brandon Teena, living as a boy, comes to a small town in Nebraska, gets caught up in a love affair with a girl, and meets a tragic end.

HS: When I go out and run my errands and I'm living my life, I almost have to add two hours onto my day. This isn't just the boring old "now I'm famous" thing. It's about people's response to the movie's subject. Because when people realize "Oh, that was the girl who played Brandon Teena," they stop me, they get six inches from my face and look deep into my eyes and say, "Thank you so much for making that movie.

IS: Before Boys Don't Cry, how many movies had you been in?

HS: Four features. But that doesn't include television I had done. I was on a show called Camp Wilder, a half-hour sitcom. That started out my career, and I worked there with Jay Mohr and Jerry O'Connell. I also did the movie Buffy, The Vampire

Slayer [1992], my first feature. I played Kimberly, Buffy's best friend, who was a Valley Girl. So I really started out in comedy. So I was kind of learning as I went along. Then I was on Beverly Hills 90210 for half a season. That was three years ago. But the life of an actor is so tumultuous, so up and down. Sometimes you just have to take what comes your way and try and grow as much as you can from that opportunity. I know that all my experiences contributed to my playing Brandon Teena. Because when the role came along, I was so ready for it. I didn't know when I first read the script that it was a true story.

IS: How did the script come your way?

HS: You want to hear something really amazing? I was born in the same hospital that Brandon was born in, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Now, I told you my first movie was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. My character's name there was Kimberly. My second movie was The Next Karate Kid [1994], and my character's last name was Pierce.

IS: And Kimberly Peirce ended up being the director of Boys Don't Cry.

HS: Yes. [laughs] Isn't that funny? I'm a really superstitious person: I believe in little signs like that.

IS: Before Boys Don't Cry, were there ever moments when you felt, It's never going to happen for me?

HS: Never. I'm young. And I am a very, very optimistic person. I don't know how I was blessed with that, but it's something that has always been with me. I knew probably at the age of eight that I wanted to be an actress, and I told my mom.

IS: Where were you then?

HS: We were in Bellingham, Washington. I'm pretty sure my mom said to me, "Oh, that's nice, honey, go play."

IS: Did you feel like an outsider as a child?

HS: I don't think I was the happiest kid. So maybe performing gave me that outlet for a certain sort of attention that I wasn't getting. I felt lonely. We lived in a trailer park, and the kids who went to my school seemed to be more upper-class. When I was in about eighth grade I remember--and this is something I haven't talked about--something that happened. A group of kids who I thought were my friends ran past me and threw this letter at me. It hit me in the back of the head, and I was like, "What the hell?" I took the letter, and they ran off giggling. I think I got on the school bus and I opened up that letter, and it said, "You think you're so cool, but you're not; you think you're so pretty, but you're ugly; you think you're so talented, but you suck." I was heartbroken. I still can't figure it out. I don't think I did anything to deserve it.

IS: At what point did you start to dedicate yourself to acting?

HS: During my sophomore year my Mom was at a crossroads in her life. And I had decided that acting was something I wanted to take seriously. She said, "Let's both go to California." So we picked up, with seventy-five bucks to our name, and drove down to California in our Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. We lived off our Mobil card--you know, you can go into the mini-marts in Mobil stations and eat. Through a previous connection, we found out about this family who were selling their house. They said that my Mom and I could live in the house while they were selling it, but that during the day we'd have to make it look as if no one lived there.