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"The first movie I did was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My character's name was Kimberly. In my second movie, The Next Karate Kid, my character's last name was Pierce. The script for Boys Don't Cry came to me from the writer/director Kimberly Pierce.
"I'm a really superstitious person, so I believe in signs and omens like that," says Swank.
In Boys Don't Cry, Swank plays Teena Brandon, a Nebraska woman who was raped and murdered for trying to live her life as a man.
"I was born in the same hospital as Brandon in Lincoln, Nebraska. I had never heard of the story, but when I told my grandfather I was thinking of playing Teena, he told me the whole story and encouraged me to take the role."
Swank says she could empathize with Teena's feelings of alienation.
"I was an outsider growing up. My mom and I lived in a trailer park (in Bellingham, Wash.). The kids at school teased me because I wasn't from the same social class.
"When I was in my last year of school, my mom and I moved to California. When we arrived, we only had $75. It was a long, hard struggle, but I always believed it was possible to become an actress."
American dream
Christian Bale, who plays the title character in the serial killer drama American Psycho, has a drop or two of theatre in his blood.
"My older sister was in the British stage production of Bugsy Malone. I used to go to the dance classes with her and then to the theatre to watch the show each night," recalls Bale.
"One of the producers of that show cast me in the British production of The Nerd and that led to my role (at age 13) in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun."
Bale also has one sister who is a musician and another who directs.
Both Bale's grandfathers dabbled in the entertainment business.
"My mom's father was a stand-up comic and magician and my dad's father was John Wayne's stunt double."
Bale's grandfather was a park ranger in Africa when the Duke arrived to film Hatari! in 1962.
"My grandfather ended up doubling for Wayne. He liked what my grandfather did and asked him to do several other films with him."
Fun for Forest
Forest Whitaker, who stars as the mysterious assassin in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, stars in the science-fiction epic Battlefield Earth on May 12.
"I play John Travolta's henchman. We're aliens and we're really evil characters," says Whitaker. "We both have these long dreadlocks and we got to walk around on stilts to be even more imposing.
"Barry Pepper plays the leader of the humans we've enslaved. It's Planet of the Apes with aliens. We have the humans in concentration camps and treat them like slaves."
Travolta had tried to get this film made for almost 10 years and was turned down by every major studio. He finally struck a deal with Warner Bros.
"Kudos to John for sticking it out," says Whitaker. "This project means a great deal to him. It was written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of John's church (Scientology).
"You could just see how excited John was every day on that set. He was seeing his dream come true."
Warner Bros. has already commissioned a sequel to Battlefield Earth for summer 2002.
Naive and naked
In the rehab drama 28 Days, British actor Dominic West plays Sandra Bullock's wayward boyfriend.
When it comes to making American films, West can't believe how naive and trusting he is.
"When we were filming A Midsummer Night's Dream, the director (Michael Hoffman) explained that the four lovers would be doing a nude scene," recalls West.
"When the fated day arrived, I mustered up all my courage and walked out there starkers. To my horror, Christian (Bale), Calista (Flockhart) and Anna (Friel) had discreet little body things on.
"They'd had it written into their contracts or something. Worst still, they all doubled over in laughter when they saw me, but then I get that a lot when I'm naked."
West is currently filming Metal God with Mark Wahlberg, in which he plays the lead guitarist in a Judas Priest-like band called Steel Dragon. West is the one who hires Wahlberg to be the band's lead singer.
"They gave me these long, hair extensions and these horrible spandex pants because it's set in 1985. When I got to the set, the other band members were all in these fantastic leather outfits.
"Apparently they'd rebelled when they saw the original costumes and went out and bought their own, but the director thought it was a great visual joke to keep me in the spandex."