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From her very first lead film role in The Next Karate Kid, Hilary Swank has had the rare gift of both toughness and vulnerability that has enabled her to always make an emotional impact on audiences with her performances. And her full-bodied performances have paid off big time for the now-35-year old actress with two best actress Oscar wins for her roles in both Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby.

Swank has continued to gain notices for her performances in subsequent films like The Freedom Writers and P.S. I Love You. Now the actress hopes to take her authenticity to her portrayal of pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart in the film Amelia, which she says in no uncertain terms are big shoes for her to fill.

"Obviously, moviemaking is a collaboration and it takes a lot of people's ideas, but in the end, I try to do what I was told and what was on the page and I'd try and bring the honesty to," Hilary says, "It's a big responsibility to play somebody who really lived. It's a big responsibility to play somebody as iconic as Amelia, too, I mean, we all have."

"It's such a great idea of who she was and what she looked like, so there wasn't a lot of room for fictional license," she continues, "And we just had to do the best we could to do honor to that person. And under [director] Mira [Nair's] guidance and keen eye and she's an incredible visionary and just tried to navigate the best we could and that is hopefully on screen."

And with embodying an important historical figure like Amelia Earhart, Hilary says, comes a lot of research.

"Obviously, I learned about Amelia from a very young age. But what I learned is what you learn in textbooks," she says, "And for me, obviously, getting under the skin of a person I'm playing is really important. We're all specific human beings. We're specific. We know what

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our favorite color is. We know what we love, we know what we don't like. And trying to figure that out about a person that you're portraying is very important. In reading, there was a lot of literature about Amelia. There are two books I obviously read, as well as the book 20 Hours, 40 Min. So reading all of that literature and trying to understand who she was."

"I think Amelia was a very private person, so what she was expressing out in the world might not have necessarily been what her true thoughts were," Swank adds, "So just breaking down how her childhood formed who she was, but I think one of the things from Amelia that I took away that I found very inspiring and moving and how I feel a lot of the people, more than any of my movies, have come up to me and said, 'I can't wait to see Amelia'. And I kind of expected from women to really want to see this movie, but a lot of men are coming up to me saying, 'I can't wait to see this movie.' And I think what a lot of people are, in my opinion, magnetized to is the idea this person, Amelia, who lived her life the way she wanted to live it. She made no apologies for saying this is my life, this is how I see it, and this is how I want it to be done. I think in 2009, that's really rare especially for women."

Swank particularly feels that a film on Earhart is beneficial for a female audience not only in showing how far women in America have come, but how much women still have a ways to go on the road towards complete equality in society.

"I think it's a more male-centric world." she believes, "And male, I think they're able to have the life they envision for themselves, but women, not as much, even

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in 2009. So when we're talking about somebody who lived in the twenties, when women just got the right to vote, and thirties, it's incredible. So it's obviously a period piece and yet, it even transcends what we even know now. And I think that's a reminder and certainly, it was a reminder for me to live my life. You only have one life and it's so short and Amelia's was so short. She accomplished a lot in her lifetime, more than most people really do, I think, in a really long life."

"But it was just a reminder that you have to constantly look within and continue to live the life that you want to live for yourself and not for other people," Hilary adds, "You know, I'll look at my life and say I might be doing this because it's my mother's idea or your friend's idea or your partner's idea or whatever it is. I think Amelia is just such a great reminder that you can live your life the way you want it and find love and experience your dreams and you can have it all. That's what I really learned in diving deep into who she was and like I said, you only live once, you might as well be doing what you love."

With embodying the persona of Earhart came learning how to fly a plane, which Hilary said she enjoyed so much that she says she plans to actually obtain a pilot's license.

"Obviously, you can't play Amelia Earhart and not learn how to fly that would be wrong in every way," Swank says, "I have to say when you're a kid there are so many firsts there are so many things that you are learning all of the time. You’re learning how to ride a bike and to read. There are so many things you haven't experienced and it's euphoric because you’re really in the moment and then

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as you become adults you’ve experienced a lot and there's not a lot of firsts anymore and learning how to fly for me was so euphoric because it was like I was learning how to ride a bike. It was a first and it takes all of your senses and you're completely immersed. It's dangerous and adventurous and it's all of the things that I love and that I think Amelia loved."

"I love to learn and it was exciting to learn something new that really was challenging," she continues, "I didn't realize the calculations that go into flying. It was like I was back in calculus. I'm not a big sweater, but I would find after a two-hour flight lesson I would land and my back was drenched just from the concentration. It was really wonderful. I flew 19 hours and I wanted to get my pilot's license, but for insurance purposes, they couldn't really let me go up by myself in order to do that especially before filming the movie. I'm sure now they'd say, 'Sure go ahead.' I would like to get my pilot's license. It's something that I'd like to see things through to the end and I don't want to just say, 'Yeah I flew'. I'd like to get my license and continue to go up on my own. One of the great things about my job is I get to do all of these things that I may not experience had I not been an actor and I think saying that I learned how to fly to playing Amelia Earhart is pretty great."

Swank says she wasn't attracted so much to the idea of playing Amelia Earhart specifically, but the idea of playing the character in a truly three-dimensional manner she says she found in the script for Amelia.

"I wouldn't say I was always longing to play Amelia Earhart, but I do

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long to play roles that challenge me, scare me, and make me learn new things about the world, about myself, and about my art," she remarks.

"I had read a script on Amelia about 10 years ago right after I did Boys Don't Cry," Hilary adds, "And it didn't capture Amelia to me and so it was obviously not a movie that I was a part of. When this one came across my desk, I just felt that connection."

She says that she was particularly impressed by how the film in particular portrays how very forthcoming Earhart really was for her time, including having an open marriage.

"I think one of the things that I also touched on was Amelia's way of going about her life the way in which she carried herself and the way she expressed herself," Swank notes, "And I feel like if we could all be so up front and forthright about our feelings, our emotions, our desires, and needs and could somehow manage expectations out of relationships. I think it's really challenging to be that honest even with the people that you really love and you feel are suppose to be loving you unconditionally."

"It's really hard," she continues, "And there's a lot of reasons why we could sit here all day and talk about that, but I think that Amelia's way of living her life was very honest and very open so when she lived her life the way she wanted she had already expressed that's how she was going to do it so it wasn't like she was hurting anybody along the way. It almost made it an unconditional relationship that they had, which is really rare. I respect anyone who is able to be so forthright about themselves. I think that that's a lot of what our life is about, figuring out how can we be as honest and live as honestly with ourselves and in our

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relationships.

Particularly helpful to Swank in portraying Earhart was archival footage of the aviator.

"The footage on Amelia, there's something like maybe 16 minutes, it might only be 12 minutes," she says, "A lot of it is from news reels so it's more her public face but there are little moments within the news reel where she doesn't know the camera is on and you actually see her tone down her way of speaking and her physicality. She had a unique pattern in which she spoke, which was the most challenging accent that I have done to date. I spent over eight weeks trying to learn how she spoke and there is that period way of speaking that you would hear Katherine Hepburn and you see all those old movies and there’s that way of speaking, which can sound posh or upper class and Amelia wasn't that."

"She was a girl from Kansas and she sounded period yet different and trying to figure that cadence out and also not make it the elevated public persona that she put on except when needed was quite a challenge," Hilary continues, " Thankfully I had Mira saying, 'Push it a little here, bring it back here, that's a little too much here.' It was challenging to walk that line to find the human quality in it and also to relate to it now because we don't speak like that.

One of the things Hilary particularly enjoyed about doing Amelia was getting to witness Earhart's legendary aircraft, which appears in the film.

"I have to say that it's a character in the movie," Swank claims, "You can't tell the story without the Electra. It's talked about throughout the film and in the latter part of the film it's a character in the movie. One of the interesting things that people take for granted is, I mean, look I was just telling you I just spent 36 hours in the

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air in the last five days. I was in the air more than I was on the ground and I just got onto the flight and sat back and enjoyed it."

"When Amelia was flying it was a sport and she hoped that someday it would be a way of transportation and this plane in particular is a beast to fly, it's not easy," she adds, "When Amelia was flying it was dangerous so to fly that around the world is really quite remarkable. When we had the plane, I taxied it, but I didn't actually get to fly the plane."

Amelia Earhart's extraordinary life however ended tragically after she disappeared after attempting a flight around the world. We asked Swank how she and director Mira Nair attempted to keep the drama of the story in balance for the ending of the film.

"When you think you know how it ended you have to go see it to see if it really ends the way you think it ended because there's a lot of theories aren't there?" Hilary replies.

Despite the tragedy, Hilary says that she believes Earheart would be amazed at how far aviation has come in the modern world.

"I think Amelia would be thrilled," she says, "It was something that she was always commenting about when she was working with Gene [Vidal], it was always the progress of aviation in any way, shape, and form she could be a part of that."

With two Oscars already under her belt, there's already potential buzz for her another nomination, particularly after already receiving public support for her performance from fellow actress Uma Thurman. Swank shared with us her reaction to the praise from Thurman and others.

"Thank you," Hilary replies, "First to have such a compliment from another actress that I admire so much is a great honor. I have to say Amelia was so supportive of other women and I feel like women aren't always supportive of

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another woman's strengths.

"And I think powerful women are supportive of the underdog women or the women who are suffering from inequality," she continues, "Yet, when it's another woman's strength they find it hard to muster up a lot of accolades so one it's very nice to hear such a nice compliment from someone that I admire so much."

However, Hilary partially credits the effectiveness of her performance to Mira Nair's direction.

"Mira being at the helm of this ship was such a perfect match because I feel it's rare to see a woman carrying herself in the way in which she does," Swank says, "Mira also makes no apologies for her strengths and it's interesting when you see a woman in a place of power a lot of times they're apologizing for it, "I’m sorry but can you please do this or can you please do that?" It's a lot of, "I’m sorry but", before they say what it is that they need."

"To be with Mira and to see her ask for what she needs and to see her direct with the strength in which she carries herself and with the vision that she carries I think was perfect to direct a story about Amelia Earhart," she adds, "This is the first time I heard that and it just warms my heart. I think it's a hard enough world out there in general and then you add the layer of being a woman and we just need to be there for each other so thanks for letting me know that.

Ultimately, Swank says it's her love for acting that makes all the rigors that come with being an actor, like doing press and promoting a film, worth the while.

"Promoting things for your passion as in press obviously my passion lies in telling stories it's what I’ve wanted to do since I was 9 years old," she says, "I love people. I love what makes people unique

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and what makes them similar. One of the things you would ask are some similarities between Amelia and I and one of them is that she loved to travel and I love to travel. I’ve been so fortunate in my career to travel all around the world and part of that is to talk about the films that I am a part of. Sometimes it can be very grueling and difficult. In the last 16 days I was in Italy and then back to Los Angeles then Dubai then London then back to Los Angeles and now in New York. Stewards actually laugh because I know them so well and they say, 'Hillary it's illegal for us to fly as much as you fly.'"

"I'm constantly in the air and I'm constantly out promoting my films," Hilary continues, "Amelia understood that without the understanding of the business side of things you can't have your career. If I’m not willing to go out and talk about the things that I’m a part of, which I in fact love, so it's not like it's difficult to get in touch with why I’m a part of a film, then you can’t have the other side of it and that makes complete sense to me. I understand the business side of it, although I really love the art side of it and they intertwine. You just try to do the best you can and I wonder what Amelia would say. I remember her saying that it was hard and there's a line in the movie I feel like I’m this white horse jumping through hoops and sometimes you feel like you’re in a circus but it's when things become more personal and you feel like, 'I’m just an actor trying to talk about my love for movies,' and you just have to remember why you’re doing it and be in touch

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with that."