- Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry, 1999. With so many actresses scared of portraying the life and 1993 murder of a yong transgender man called Brandon Teena, auteur Kimberly Pierce almost dropped plans for a feature version of her short film. More willing candidates for Brandon included Alison Folland, Lisa Jakub, Katherine Moennig (the 2004-2009 L Word star) and Chloe Sevigny (who played Lana). And Alicia Goranson, who won Candace, based on Lisa Lambert, murdered alongside Brandon. Swank tested as a guy, stetson and all. “This person came onscreen,” recalled Pierce. “They were captivating. They were beautiful. They were masculine. They connected to us. They won us over. This person blurred the genre line. They won us over and they knew how to act. They could act that part. That was Hilary.” On her way to her first Oscar in what . Chicago critic Roger Ebert called the “a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame…. a worthy companion to those other masterpieces of death on the prairie, Badlands and In Cold Blood.”
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