Like her determined boxer character in Million Dollar Baby, Hilary Swank, who walked off with her second best actress Oscar in five years Sunday, knows what it means to struggle.
While she is in rare company as a double Oscar winner at the tender age of 30, Swank has faced some of the same challenges as Maggie Fitzgerald, her driven character in Clint Eastwood's heart-wrenching film.
The straight-taking brunette, who snagged her first best actress award in 2000 for her role as a sexually ambiguous woman in Boys Don't Cry, has fought her back way from adversity several times in a few short years.
"I never really expected anything in life. I'm not that type of person," said the actress, who, like her character Maggie, grew up in a trailer park in a small American town before coming to Los Angeles to pursue her dream.
"I'm a fighter, you know? I had to fight my whole life to break out of my circumstances. That's just part of my makeup."
And fought she has.
{{/usCountry}}And fought she has.
{{/usCountry}}Swank was born in July 1974 in the Midwestern US state of Nebraska and was raised in the Northwestern state of Washington as the only child of a single mother after her parents separated.
The tall young gymnast knew from the earliest age that she wanted to be an actress, and, ironically, it was adversity that would lead to her following her dreams: Her mother was sacked from her job when Hilary was just 16.
"She was at a crossroads in her life and knew I wanted to act, so she said, 'Let's go to Hollywood,'" Swank told Newsweek magazine recently.
Mother and daughter drove to Los Angeles and lived in their car for a few weeks until they could find a place to live.
The down-to-earth young Swank quickly began auditioning and won roles in television shows, including Beverly Hills 90210, and in films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992).
She got her first movie break at the age of 20 in The Next Karate Kid and played a string of forgettable, poorly paying television and big-screen movie roles.
In 1999, she got her big break when she was cast in Boys Don't Cry, but that didn't mean her struggles were over.
Swank was paid just 3,000 dollars for her demanding and tough performance in the film that saw her beat out Hollywood legends Meryl Streep and Annette Bening at the 2000 Academy Awards.
Even after winning acting's top honour, the young actress, married to actor Chad Lowe, could not even afford health insurance.
But she thought that would soon change dramatically thanks to her golden statuette and that Hollywood would begin bringing round scripts for top movies on a silver platter.
But the big offers never came in.
"I had an expectation that there'd be lots of quality projects coming my way after that, until I discovered there just aren't a lot of quality projects, especially for women," she said.
But instead of resting on her golden laurel, the determined young actress went back to work in a string of critically dismissed movies, including The Gift (2000), The Affair of the Necklace (2001), Insomnia (2002) and The Core (in 2003), virtually disappearing from Hollywood's radar screen.
That was, until cinema legend Eastwood approached her to star in his small film Million Dollar Baby.
The role inspired Swank, and she began relentlessly training with professional boxers, putting on 8.6 kilograms (19 pounds) of muscle.
But while she fought her way out of relative obscurity again, even a second Oscar won't make Swank take her future success for granted.
"You're always continually having to prove yourself and to fight for things," she said matter-of-factly. "I think that nothing is for sure."