Hilary's Swanky New Screen Image

By Stephen M. Silverman

11/28/2001 at 01:00 PM EST

Hilary Swank's character in her latest film, "Affair of the Necklace," is a far cry from her 1999 Oscar-winning role in "Boys Don't Cry." In the latter, Swank, now 27, played Teena Brandon, a Nebraska woman murdered when acquaintances discovered she had been posing as a young man named Brandon Teena. In "Affair," an 18th-century costume drama based on a true story, Swank plays Countess Jeanne de la Motte Valois, who sets out to right the wrongs put upon her family by the French aristocracy. On Tuesday night, at a private New York screening of the film hosted by Ivana Trump, Swank told PEOPLE that she and her feisty character have a few things in common. "She is driven, confident and naive," said the actress. "I think that I'm driven. I think I'm determined, and at times confident. Like others though, that surely waivers more on the less side than more." She added that she did not purposely make Affair to counteract the image she created with 'Boys.' "I actually was offered this movie before I received the Golden Globe for 'Boys Don't Cry,' " she said. "Everyone said, 'Did you make this because you wanted to be the polar opposite (of Teena)?' This came along before I could make a conscious decision like that."