A SWANK 'AFFAIR' OSCAR WINNER HILARY AIMS HIGH WITH HER LATEST ROLE - AS SHE DOES WITH EVERYTHING.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Hilary Swank came from out of relative nowhere to win a Best Actress Academy Award for one of the most unusual performances that's ever claimed the prize: ``Boys Don't Cry's'' Brandon Teena, the gender-confused young woman who wanted to be a man.

Quite an accomplishment for a young actress whose previous career high points had been a one-season stint on ``Beverly Hills 90210'' and playing the universally overlooked ``Next Karate Kid.''

But Oscar took care of any career worries forevermore, right? Well ...

``At first, honestly, you feel this enormous pressure to be larger than life and to not make mistakes,'' says Swank, 27. ``That was really interesting because I didn't think it would be like that. Every time I watched the Oscars, I thought oh, that person's life's changed and no problems forever. But then it happens to you and you realize that you're still the same person who still makes your mistakes.

``I was thinking there was no place to go but down and I was being watched under a microscope, all of those things. But once I got past that and got back to that very pure, innocent place of why I started acting, I was much better off.''

French twist

Swank's follow-up star turn is more the kind of classy, costume piece that is generally considered academy catnip. ``The Affair of the Necklace'' is based on a scandalous incident that took place in prerevolutionary France, familiar to those who've studied Gallic history but essentially unknown outside of the country.

Jeanne de la Motte Valois, whom Swank plays, was the daughter of a nobleman who was slain by the king's men for his liberal social ideas. Stripped of her title, when Jeanne grew up she tried to work her way into the Versailles inner circle, in hopes of gaining Queen Marie Antoinette's help in restoring her family's status. This proved harder than expected, so, with increasing obsessiveness and devious ingenuity, Jeanne engineered an insanely elaborate deception revolving around the 647-diamond necklace of the title.

Her scheme eventually proved a great public embarrassment to both the royal court and the politically ambitious Cardinal of France, and resulted in a scandalous trial that made Jeanne something of a symbol for the forces that would soon launch the bloody, historic revolt.

Swank had already made ``Boys Don't Cry'' when director Charles Shyer cast her as Jeanne, but the film had just come out at the time and the long line of awards and accolades had yet to commence.

Why it appealed

``I chose Hilary because when I met her, she connected to the character,'' says Shyer, whose previous films include the ``Father of the Bride'' and ``Parent Trap'' remakes. ``I'd met a lot of actresses before that and all of them were bigger names than Hilary, but the things that she thought were important about Jeanne were exactly what I thought were important. She said things to me that no other actress had come close to saying.

``And I loved her determination and her passion, so I just kind of went with her on a gut instinct,'' he adds. ``Of course, when Hilary won the Academy Award, I suddenly looked like a genius!''

Swank describes that unique perspective she brought to the piece, which became evident in the way she portrayed Jeanne as a woman of multilayered wiles and single-minded drive, but sympathetic in her core motivations and self-defeating myopia.

``I could relate to her because she was somebody who was so focused on a goal - which often happens to me - that she lost out on opportunities on the way to that goal,'' says the often self-transforming Swank, her biceps currently ripped for an upcoming astronaut role in the sci-fi movie ``The Core.'' ``Then, once you get there, you go, 'Wait a second, this isn't what I thought it was going to be and I missed all that along the way.' We all do that.

``What I'm trying to say is that we, as human beings, have the capacity to learn from our mistakes, hopefully. But she got involved in something that was way over her head.''

While Swank could draw parallels to her own life, she doesn't appear to have missed out on other kinds of fulfillment while pursuing her acting dreams. Raised in an Air Force family in the state of Washington, Swank's childhood interest in gymnastics evolved into a love for the stage before she hit her teens.

Her parents split up when she was 15, which prompted Hilary and her mother to move to L.A. There were tough times for both of them while the young Swank pursued an acting career, even a period of living out of their car. But work soon began happening for both of them (Mom's an executive secretary) and, as acting jobs came and went, Hilary found time to connect with the love of her life, actor Chad Lowe.

``I'd been 18 for about two months when I met him, so I was barely legal,'' she recalls. ``He was 24, but it was just one of those things that was right and you don't question it. He was totally open to putting the relationship on hold if I felt I was too young to commit to it, but I realized that you can't put fate on hold. I didn't want anything else.''

Together nine years and married for the last four, Swank and Lowe thrive on communication, she says - even when what's being said might initially meet with resistance.

Not a passive personality

``My husband calls me someone who bucks the system,'' she reveals. ``When he first said that to me, I was offended and very defensive. But now I realize that that's actually a quality that I'm proud of. I think, sometimes, that laws and rules are enforced for the safety and well-being of people. But sometimes I've felt like limits were placed on where my creativity could go, and I wanted to buck that.''

And she continues to do so. Swank recently completed filming the thriller ``Insomnia'' opposite Al Pacino and Robin Williams. The murder mystery is most notable, however, for its director Christopher Nolan, who was responsible for ``Memento,'' this year's most innovatively rule-breaking feature.

``It's not as tricky as 'Memento'; you won't be able to watch the movie backwards and understand it as well,'' she says of ``Insomnia.'' ``But Chris has a different way of going about making a movie, and he doesn't like it linear. The one person who's not in on what's going on in the movie is moi, as the budding detective that I am. The sentence I use to sum up 'Insomnia' is: Nothing is as it seems; heroes are flawed.''

Sounds like a good description of Swank's recent film work. She admits that suiting up in the corsets, curls, hats and other attendant filigree of 18th-century French high fashion was as much a part of disappearing into her ``Affair of the Necklace'' role as internalizing what drove Jeanne's character. Painful, but integral. ``People ask me if I'll ever bind my breasts down again for a role,'' Swank notes, referring to a key aspect of the ``Boys Don't Cry'' impersonation. ``Y'know, it's not the most comfortable thing, for sure, nor is wearing a corset. I would never take a role because of how a person looks in a movie, but in the case of 'Affair of the Necklace,' it's absolutely impossible to play the part without being in these costumes. You get in those clothes and that hair and makeup, and half your work's done.''

Well, maybe not that much. And with what looks to be a lot of interesting work still ahead of her, Hilary Swank is likely to show us a lot more of what she's capable of, regardless of how she's dressed.

``I'm not one to ever expect anything in my life,'' Swank cautions. ``But I certainly always hoped that I would get the opportunity to test my chops and challenge myself. I was just lucky when 'Boys Don't Cry' came along, and I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful for all of the opportunities that have arisen since winning the Oscar.

``But I never really thought about it as, 'Oh, when's it going to be my turn?' '' she adds. ``And I sure didn't expect it to happen with something like 'Boys Don't Cry.' ''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Current `Affair'

Oscar winner Hilary Swank talks about life, work and her latest role, `Affari of the Necklace'

(2) ``I could relate to her because she was somebody who was so focused on a goal - which often happens to me - that she lost out on opportunities on the way to that goal,'' says Hilary Swank of her role as the obsessive Jeanne de la Motte Valois in ``The Affair of the Necklace.''