“They didn’t pass as boys,” director Kimberly Peirce said of the actresses who auditioned to play Brandon Teena, a real-life Nebraskan woman who passed as a dude before being murdered.

Enter Hilary Swank. “You felt the excitement that Brandon felt, passing as Brandon,” Peirce gushed.

Swank put hard time in, mind: she “passed” in public and assiduously researched Brandon’s life.

But she brings giddy joy, open-hearted vulnerability and romantic poetry to him too, as well as a sexy strut. Walked off with that Oscar, too.

Greatest Moment: You looking at me? Checking his form in the mirror.

Also See: Maggie Fitzgerald (Million Dollar Baby).