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FROM THE TIME ARCHIVE She's A Big Girl Now Boys Don't Cry has catapulted Hilary Swank into the major leagues. Will she be able to stay there? [1/17/2000]

A few months after we met, Hilary told me a story. She said she had been kicking around Hollywood ever since she was a teenager, when she and her mom moved there. For a while she started booking guest appearances on TV shows, especially sitcoms. She earned a good living but really wanted to work on a TV drama. She finally got her shot—an audition for a role she desperately wanted. She read for the network and came out feeling as if she had nailed it. She waited for the decision, which came moments later. "Sorry," said the executive. "You're a good actress, but you're just too sitcom." Three weeks later she got the role in Boys Don't Cry.

Therein lies Hilary's problem. Nobody creates art every time out. But when Hilary is great, she is so damn good that you forget she isn't that role. You believe she is this girl who just happened upon the set before the cameras rolled. I look forward to that next role when she will wipe Maggie Fitzgerald from my memory. Because only she can do that—and we were all too cruel to poor Maggie.

Paul Haggis' directorial debut, Crash, opens in May

Nov. 27, 1989	Feb. 8, 1999	May 19, 1980
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