NEW YORK - As the one of the youngest women to earn two Academy Awards, Hilary Swank has the kind of clout in Hollywood that can get a "thoughtful" movie made.

Such was the case with "Freedom Writers," an inspirational drama about an idealistic high school teacher who motivates her class of "unteachables" to practice tolerance and express themselves through writing.

Swank, dressed for this interview in an elegant black Fendi dress, says she initially had doubts about the movie’s prospects, given the number of classroom dramas that have been made over the years.

But after reading director Richard LaGravenese’s screenplay, she was sold. Based on "The Freedom Writers Diary," by a group of at-risk high school freshmen and their teacher, it tells of how teacher Erin Gruwell inspired her class of would-be gangbangers, underachievers and misfits. She also listened to their hopes and fears and understood the realities of their impoverished everyday lives.

Swank, 32, not only agreed to star as Gruwell, an idealistic first-year teacher, she also served as the project’s executive producer. In that capacity, she was able to help secure financial backing and studio support for the film.

"I can’t even begin to describe the joy that it brings me to be able to take a script that can’t get made and say that (I) want to do it and then get it made," Swank says.

Swank emailed Gruwell and poured her heart out to the inspiring instructor, telling her how important it was to bring her story to the world.

More than anything, Swank considers herself a storyteller. Books and movies inspired her to become an actress because they transported her and made her feel like she belonged, she says. Now, she hopes her art will inspire others as well as entertain.

Gruwell, who hails from an affluent, liberal family, had no idea what she was getting into when she accepted a teaching position in 1994 at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. As the low teacher on the totem pole, she was given a freshman classroom of at-risk youngsters who had been shuffled through the vast school system without regard to whether they were learning.

Swank portrays Gruwell as the idealistic and naive teacher that she was, entering a world she didn’t understand - until she listened to her students. Gruwell comes to realize that her students have endured unimaginable difficulties outside the classroom - from fear of gang violence to parental abandonment. As she slowly builds trust with her students, Gruwell has them write their innermost thoughts in journals, which she supplies. With their permission, she then has them read excerpts to the rest of the class. They dub themselves Freedom Writers as a tribute to the 60s civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders.

Gruwell also exposes the teenagers to the historical consequences of intolerance. They read "The Diary of Anne Frank" and gradually come to realize that they can overcome the hurdles life has set before them if they don’t give in to their fears.

The teacher’s dedication and commitment to her students’ welfare, however, begins to take a toll on her personal life - especially on her husband, played by Patrick Dempsey ("Grey’s Anatomy"). Gruwell’s teaching methods also meet with resistance from school administration bureaucrats, but with the help of her father (Scott Glenn) she presses on.

Swank says she admires Gruwell for putting everything on the line for something she believes in and identifies with her quest to follow her calling.

"Women have a really difficult time having a dream and wanting to follow that dream and not being supported," she says. "I’ve had friends in my life who, as I got more successful, weren’t a part of my life anymore because it made them feel inadequate. Everyone should try to support one another."

The divorced actress doesn’t attribute the breakup of her marriage to actor Chad Lowe to her career, but she does acknowledge that acting, for now, is the most important thing in her life.

Swank has more in common with the Freedom Writers than with Gruwell. Born in Nebraska, she moved to a trailer park in Bellingham, Wash., with her brother and parents when she was 6. Often feeling like an outsider, she found solace in acting and sports. She competed in the Junior Olympics and Washington state championships in swimming. She was also ranked fifth in the state for all-around girls’ gymnastics.

Her parents separated when she was 13 and she moved with her mother two years later to L.A. with only $75. They actually lived in a car for a time, while Swank pursued an acting career and attended school in Pasadena.

But fate smiled on Swank. It wasn’t long before she landed an agent and her first speaking role on the short-lived TV series "Harry and the Hendersons." Soon after, she snagged recurring roles on several other TV shows, including "Growing Pains" and "Evening Shade."

In 1992, Swank landed a regular role on ABC’s "Camp Wilder." She also won the coveted role of Buffy’s sidekick Kimberly in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

After "Buffy," Swank was cast to play the title role of Julie Pierce in "The Next Karate Kid" in 1994. For two seasons, she played an unwed single mom on the popular TV series "Beverly Hills 90210."

She met Lowe on the set of "Quiet Days in Hollywood," a straight-to-video drama in 1992. They married five years later and seemed to enjoy a fairytale romance but divorced earlier this year, reportedly due to Lowe’s substance abuse. She reportedly is dating her agent, John Campisi.

Swank’s big break arrived with 1999’s "Boys Don’t Cry," which she lobbied hard to get. She earned a mere $3,000 for the role. Her heartbreaking performance as Brandon Teena, a teenage girl brutally murdered after passing herself off as a boy, earned Swank her first Academy Award.

She subsequently starred in several films, including "The Gift," "Affair of the Necklace" and "Insomnia." She earned kudos for her role as a suffragette in HBO’s "Iron Jawed Angels." Most recently, she starred as a femme fatale in "The Black Dahlia."

Tapped by Clint Eastwood to star in "Million Dollar Baby," Swank earned her second Academy Award in 2005 as a boxer who finds her true family in the gym before suffering a catastrophic injury in the ring. Eastwood won for directing that picture and Morgan Freeman for his supporting role as a trainer.

To this day, Swank is enamored with Eastwood. She says she follows his advice to "always aim for the bulls-eye, even if you don’t always hit." Despite her recent streak of well-picked scripts, Swank insists that it’s difficult to find good parts.

"One in 20 scripts are good but only one in 50, I feel, are something like (Freedom Writers’)," she says. "I know I wanted to be part of it and I was hoping that I was going to get that opportunity."

Swank next stars in "The Reaping," a supernatural thriller about biblical plagues striking a Louisiana town. She says producer Joel Silver convinced her to take on the lead just before she won her second Oscar. "He said he wanted me to read this, and I said, OK, can I read it next week?’" she recalls. "He said, no, I want you to read it now, and I want you to come and sit down with me too after you read it.’ I read it and I have to say that I really liked it because it represented the idea that things aren’t always as they seem."

Swank considers herself a spiritual person though she has "a lot of problems" with organized religion, she says. "I’m not saying that all problems come from that, but it’s interesting how religion plays a part in the world."