Trivia for
Boys Don't Cry (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• To prepare for her role, Hilary Swank lived life as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants much the same way that Brandon Teena did.
  
  
• Working title: "Take It Like a Man."
  
  
• The movie is based on the life of Brandon Teena.
  
  
• When Hilary Swank was living as a man to prepare for the role of Brandon Teena, she was so convincing that her neighbors believed that the young man coming and going from Swank's home (Swank in male character) was a visiting brother of hers.
  
  
• Director Kimberly Peirce said that she used the same shots in the opening roller rink scene that were used in The Wizard of Oz (1939) when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz.
  
  
• Hilary Swank won the lead role of Brandon/Teena after hundreds of other actresses had been considered and rejected over the course of three years. She told director Kimberly Peirce that, like her character, she was also 21 and came from Lincoln, Nebraska. But she was fibbing, and when Pierce later confronted her with the lies, she responded, "But that's what Brandon would do."
  
  
• The title of the film is taken from a song by The Cure. A cover of the song also plays in the background at one point.
  
  
• Diane Keaton originally considered directing with Drew Barrymore in the lead.
  
  
• All the actresses in the film (Chloë Sevigny, Alicia Goranson and Alison Folland) actually auditioned for the role of Brandon.
  
  
• Katherine Moennig auditioned for the role of Brandon/Teena
  
  
• The director, Kimberly Peirce, first came across the story when reading a long article in Village Voice written by Donna Minkowitz which was printed a few months after the murder.
  
  
• Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
  
  

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