Best Actress: Hilary Swank I
This is one of the most transformative performances to have ever won Best Actress.
I'm talking, of course, about Hilary Swank's first Oscar win for Boys Don't Cry, in which she plays the trans man Brandon Teena as he lives his final months before his tragic murder. There is a wider conversation to have about representation, and how the cisgendered, heterosexual Hilary played a trans man, but for its time it was a revolutionary film that helped spotlight the tragedy of Brandon Teena's murder and the mistreated of the LGBTQ+ community to a wider audience.
Brandon Teena was murdered in 1993 by two men who knew him in his final months, who raped and beat him before ultimately murdering him in cold blood alongside two others. Boys Don't Cry portrays him as a person who wants to be accepted, not necessarily loudly and proudly, as a man with a girlfriend, a set of friends, and a community. There are some liberties taken with the story, mainly surrounding Brandon's relationship with Lana (played by Chloe Sevigny, who garnered her own Oscar nomination), but it still touches on all the major points of Brandon's life. Overall, it's a tragic film and it's so sad because it didn't need to end that way. If more people were accepting, if more people were willing to let people live their lives, if authority figures protected people instead of questioning their gender identities, Brandon might still be alive.
I hate to say that it's brave to play a character like this, but Hilary is great in a role that requires sensitivity and bravery, to show how Brandon was willing to live his life and just how tragic it was that he wasn't left alone to live it.
Hilary, when cast, cut off her hair and began dressing as a man while preparing for the role, and stayed in her character's clothing throughout the shoot so that nobody would see her in her regular attire. She also lost weight to accentuate her facial features and lend to the androgynous look.
I think you could argue that while actresses previously dyed their hair, or played call girls when they were used to playing bumpkins, Hilary is really the first true instance of completely transforming their physicality and winning an Oscar for it. From here on out, actresses will begin to be rewarded not just for their acting, but for their physicality.
Hilary was nominated against Annette Bening (American Beauty), Janet McTeer (Tumblweeds), Julianne Moore (The End of the Affair), and Meryl Streep (Music of the Heart). I personally hate American Beauty, to quote Family Guy, it insists upon itself, and I haven't seen the rest. But Hilary deserved it.
DID I LIKE BOYS DON'T CRY? Yes!
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Did you like Boys Don't Cry? What are your thoughts on Hilary Swank's first Oscar win?
Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.
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