Oscar Winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Boy's Don't Cry) climbs into the cockpit to play famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart in a biopic that's not so much introduced in the legendary female pilot's miles amongst the clouds, but her time spent between the sheets. CLINT MORRIS talks to Hilary Swank about playing another untraditionally beautiful character.

One of the most interesting parts of the film - and it's only touched upon - is that Amelia gives the impression that she'd like to be more of a girl sometimes.

When did she say that, that's actually a quote I don't know of? (Laughs) Oh, you mean looking more beautiful and so on? I was going to say, ‘how do I not know that quote' I'd have to go back and reshoot (Laughs). Did you see how surprised I was? ... Being an actor we are constantly objectified. Things are thrown at us about what we look like, how we should look, we're not this enough or that enough, it's easy to look at yourself in those terms. I think ultimately there are so many different ways a person is beautiful. To think that Amelia would talk about herself in those terms was so remarkable when she was so beautiful and accomplished so much, she achieved so much and was sticking up for the inequality of people who were facing adversity, for women's rights, so to see that she was human in that dislike or herself, it was a very vulnerable moment.

Amelia was an inspiration for her times, but what do you think young women of today will take away from this?

I think she's an inspiration to women today too. What's incredible about this movie to me is I've never had such an outpouring of people coming up to me saying, "I cannot wait to see the film." More than any of my other films I've ever been a part of, I really have to say is what a lot people know of Amelia is what you learned in textbooks. This iconic image of who she was, but people realize this was a woman in a time when following your dream was a man's job, is an inspiration to us to continue to follow our calling. But, even take it a step further; I think this was a person who made no apologies for living her life the way she wanted to live it. If she was living in 2009, it still would be ahead of our time. I think it's very challenging to live our lives on the path that we want, whether you're a woman or a man. To me, I think anything, that is what people are responding to and it's exciting to see, especially in the difficult economic times we're living in and through, 70 years after she was living, we are still dealing with a lot of the same issues.

How much footage is out there of Amelia speaking?

I know exactly to the minute how much is out there (laughs). There are about 16 minutes of newsreel on Amelia. It's not all talking and a lot of that is her waving (laughs). The things of her speaking are limited. A lot of the stuff of her speaking are of when she had her public persona on. I found about 45 seconds of when she didn't know the camera was actually on so I got a little bit of insight not public face. Which was insightful for me and something I grabbed onto because, I didn't want to parody her. That accent was very specific. The cadence in which she spoke was very specific. The way she carried herself was very specific as it is for all of us. Those were big shoes to fill. I couldn't take any fictional license that I could actually take with someone else. But, it was a daunting task. I felt something I had to study to do justice for her.

So what kind of research materials did you have on hand?

Three things, what we have on her newsreels, and then the literature on her, and the firsthand stuff of her letters and her correspondence. But, I will tell you, she was such a private person as you see, that getting to know what she really felt was an effort in reading between the lines. It's not really on the page even when she wrote about it.

Was there anything on when she was a kid?

Yeah, and I think childhood makes up a lot of who we are and how we carry ourselves in the world. What her parents were like and the gifts they gave her and her sister - her father encourage her to write. She was a prolific writer. She was writing poetry at the age of five. But, then her father became an alcoholic and really affected her.

How do you think Amelia's story ends?

I believe she ran out of fuel. I know a lot of different ideas of what happened. Was she kidnapped by the Japanese (laughs)? Stranded on an island, you know? It's funny. Some people are saying that that is not how we should have ended the movie. I appreciate that there can be a lot of different ways. Maybe if we're successful, we'll pretend she did land for the sequel.

Amelia was discouraged to follow her dreams - what about you?

Oh, absolutely. I had one teacher who told me when am I going to give up my hobby. Look, everyone's going to have an opinion and when you're pursuing your dream and you have people, I had someone tell me I was too half-hour when I was trying to get into drama. There are types of opinions. But, some of them -- neither of those -- can be constructive. I think you have to learn how to decipher what's constructive and what you can take in to incorporate into being a better actor or help you be successful. As actors, we wear our hearts on our sleeves. It's easy to have that bad stuff that's thrown at you...be upsetting.