When I meet Hilary Swank, she introduces herself by name, as if I don't know who she is. Then, as I juggle notebook and recorder, she jumps up and fetches my bag from where I'd set it a few yards away. Not exactly behavior one imagines from a two-time Oscar winner and one of Hollywood's most bankable leading ladies. It's more like what you'd expect from an average, everyday gal – just what Swank was, not so long ago.

Swank's story reads almost like a fairy tale. She grew up in a Bellingham, Washington, trailer park, the daughter of a salesman and secretary. Her parents separated when Swank was 12, and she learned early on to take care of herself. A natural performer, she spent many lonely afternoons dreaming of becoming an actress.

In 1989, when she was 15, Swank and her mom packed up their Oldsmobile Delta 88 and, with just $75, headed to Los Angeles. They lived in the car until a friend gave them a place to stay. Swank's mom used a pay phone to book her daughter for auditions. Three years later, Swank landed her first movie role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Steady work followed, but Swank, now 32, didn't attract much notice until 1999, when she portrayed Brandon Teena, a Nebraska woman who was murdered after trying to pass as a man, in the surprise indie hit Boys Don't Cry. Swank was paid just $3,000 for the part, but her earning potential exploded when the film landed her a Best Actress Oscar.

Swank shared her rise to fame with actor Chad Lowe, whom she married in 1997. The pair split early last year.

RD interviewed the actress on the eve of the release of her new movie, Freedom Writers. She talked about finding happiness, starting over and making dreams come true.

RD: As a child, were you aware of your family's financial struggles?
Swank: That's something I didn't recognize. I had a roof over my head and food; I didn't know that a trailer park was kind of a lower-income place.

RD: Were you ever treated differently because of where you lived?
Swank: The kids didn't think twice about it. The parents were the ones who didn't want me hanging out with their children. Now that I'm an adult, I realize how horrible and damaging that can be. I just can't imagine treating kids as if they're different because of where they live.

RD: When did you discover that acting was what you wanted to do?
Swank: I was nine. A teacher had us write a skit and perform it, and I knew that working off the reactions was something that made me come alive.

RD: Does it still give you a rush?
Swank: I love my job. I can't even call it work. Every time I get the opportunity to do it, I jump out of bed just saying, "How lucky am I?"

RD: In your new movie Freedom Writers, you play Erin Gruwell, an amazing high school teacher in L.A. in the early 1990s. What drew you to the character?
Swank: She's a hero. I loved how she would never take no for an answer.

RD: She was almost naive in her ideas about how to reach kids.
Swank: It's interesting that you say that, because I've been told a lot in my life, "You're just naive." If I had said, "Yeah, maybe you're right," I probably wouldn't have pushed as hard to break through as many doors to be where I am now.

RD: Who instilled you with that belief in yourself?
Swank: My mom. She said, "You can do anything you want in life, Hilary, as long as you work hard enough. Don't take no for an answer." She didn't want me to be afraid of taking life by the reins and making the most of it.

RD: You and your mom are very close. What about your dad?
Swank: He wasn't around much when I was growing up. He and my mom were having problems. Later, I reached out to him, and we got back in touch.

RD: When you and your mom came to L.A., did you have any idea what you were up against? Were you afraid?
Swank: No. It felt like an adventure.

RD: Did your success surprise you?
Swank: After Boys Don't Cry, I started hearing people I admired saying my name. I was like, "How do they know who I am?" I still sometimes feel like that little girl from Washington who came here with this dream and is getting all these opportunities, but one of these days, someone's going to say, "Wait a minute. How did you get in?"

RD: I'll bet a lot of people get inspiration hearing your story.
Swank: When kids say to me, "You came from nothing and made yourself something – I can do that too," well, if I died tomorrow, I'd feel like I'd accomplished something.

RD: You were married to Chad Lowe for eight years and recently divorced. Are you still friends?
Swank: Mm-hmm. Yes.

RD: Did your career play any role in the breakup?
Swank: Absolutely not.

RD: So what happened?
Swank: Millions of men and women fall in love, get married, then get divorced. We all want to find love, and you try the best you can. If what happened to me helps someone realize they're in a great relationship and to hold the person closer, then do it. If it makes someone realize they're in an unhealthy relationship that is making them both unhappy, then it's not the end of the world.

RD: Still, you've said the breakup was painful. What's helped you through?
Swank: You really rely on your friends when you go through something so big. My friends are my family.

RD: What about finding love again?
Swank: I'm dating a great guy.

RD: Would you like to settle down one day and have kids?
Swank: It's hard. I love my job and I love to travel, but yeah, certainly.

RD: You made a trip to India last year.
Swank: I wanted to do some volunteer work and got connected with an organization that sent me to Palampur. They placed me in a school and at an orphanage. My job was to teach four- to six-year-olds the English alphabet. I thought, That's going to be easy. The second you say that, you're in for it. I went to the front of the class and wrote the alphabet down and said, "A." They looked at me like I was an alien. But by the time I left, they could say the alphabet, and most of them could write it too. It was great to build that trust and know that my enthusiasm encouraged them.

RD: There's a lesson in that, right?
Swank: If you go into life with a good attitude, you'll get more out of it.

RD: What was India like overall?
Swank: The poverty is rampant, but they are some of the happiest people I've ever met. I saw plenty of barefoot kids with nothing who were happy. It's a reminder of what's important in life – family, health, being able to have a place to go where you can learn and stretch your mind.

RD: You taught school in India and play a teacher in Freedom Writers, yet you yourself didn't finish high school.
Swank: It's not something I'm proud of. I'm not a quitter in any way. I don't like to start something and not finish.

RD: So why did you leave high school?
Swank: There were a lot of reasons. I was moving to Los Angeles and had made the choice to be an actor. And I found high school to be really difficult, but I don't think you should quit when things are hard. But that's how it happened. Later, I did get my GED.

RD: Would you ever go back to school?
Swank: I take classes all the time. I go to community college and take classes privately. I'm a sponge. It's one of the things I love about my job. I get to learn so many different things.

RD: You've been asked more than once "When will you play a pretty girl?" How do you respond?
Swank: I think beauty is all relative. It's subjective. To say that Maggie Fitzgerald wasn't pretty – to some people, she might've been. People say the hair, makeup and pretty clothes make a pretty girl. I just don't see it that way.

RD: You've already won two Oscars. Do you ever worry, "Now what?"
Swank: No, I never think that. I have so much more to do. I want to go deeper. That might mean I try something and fall flat on my face, but I don't ever want to play it safe.

RD: For Boys Don't Cry, you took on the persona of a transgender person for a couple of months. In Million Dollar Baby, you took some real hits. Would you go that far for a role again?
Swank: If I believe in a role, and in the story, I'll do what I need to make it believable and to make it work.

RD: Even risk your well-being?
Swank: Actually I have some problems with elevated mercury in my system. I wasn't eating meat when I was filming Million Dollar Baby but had to put on 19 pounds of muscle. So I ate a lot of fish. And for Boys Don't Cry, I went down to seven percent body fat. In Black Dahlia, when my character dies, I hit my arm on an old-fashioned ironing board, and I have a scar from that. But how great to have that. That's what life is – you want to get in there and play hard. The battle scars are a reminder that you're alive and human, and that you bleed.