Million Dollar Baby's Trailer Park Roots

Jan. 21, 2005 — -- For her first Oscar, Hilary Swank sheared her hair, strapped down her breasts and became a boy. But that's mere child's play compared to what she did to prepare for "Million Dollar Baby" -- a performance that might make her America's next gold medal boxer.

The 30-year-old actress worked out 4½ hours a day, six days a week, for three months. She consumed 219 grams of protein a day by downing 12 eggs every night before bedtime. With biceps bulging, she added 19 pounds of muscle.

On Sunday, Golden Globe voters let it be known that she delivered a knockout blow as boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, naming her best actress in a drama, and making her an early favorite in the Oscar race.

If Swank is named when Academy Award nominations are announced Tuesday, she won't just be competing for her second Oscar, she'll be competing for her second Oscar for playing a misfit trailer park resident. You might say it's a role she was born to play -- because that's how she describes herself.

"I grew up on a trailer park, and I had a dream," Swank says. "I had to fight my way there, and I'm really lucky."

Swank and her mother actually lived out of the family car for several weeks when they first got to Hollywood. She was 15 and had come from Bellingham, Wash. Her dad was in the military and largely absent from her life.

After a string of forgettable TV appearances, Swank landed a spot on "Beverly Hills 90210" for a season. Then came her first performance as a fighter, in "The Next Karate Kid."

With "Boys Don't Cry," Swank vaulted to stardom five years ago, playing a transvestite teenage girl who prefers her male identity but is brutalized when her secret is discovered.