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Last Monday, I had the opportunity to spend about 25 minutes at The Crosby Street Hotel in Soho with Hilary Swank, the 36-year old two-time best actress Oscar winner who is now in the running for a third statuette for her first-rate performance in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction” (Fox Searchlight, 10/15, R, trailer). The $12.5 million film — which Swank, as one of its executive producers, fought for years to get made — recounts the true, awe-inspiring story of Betty Anne Waters, a single mother of humble means who, over the course of 18 grueling years, and through sheer force of will, got a high school GED, college degree, and law degree, all so that she could try to prove that her beloved brother did not commit a heinous murder for which he was sentenced to life in prison.

As you can see in the videos below, Swank and I discussed not only the remarkable journey of her character but also of her own: she was raised in a trailer park in Bellingham, Washington; drove out to Hollywood at the age of 16 with her mother and only $75 between them (they lived in their car); found some early work that led to a part on the eighth season of “Beverly Hills, 90210” (1997-1998), but was fired after a year on the job and feared her career was over; but then won the lead part — and gave a transformative performance — in “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999), which led to her first Oscar and later to “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), for which which she received her second, making her a member of an elite club of women who have won the prize more than once (the others being Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and Jodie Foster).

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• Deadline New York: Mike Fleming learns that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful” will be Mexico’s official entry for this year’s best foreign language film Oscar. The film’s star Javier Bardem — whose performance brought him the best actor prize at Cannes earlier this year, and who was already generating best actor Oscar buzz — previously headlined another film, Spain’s “The Sea Inside” (2005), that won that prize.
• Oscar Watch: Dave Karger considers the possibility that three actors from “The Social Network” — Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, and Justin Timberlake — could all end up as best supporting actor Oscar nominees, and notes that it would not be unprecedented: “On the Waterfront” (1954), “The Godfather” (1972), and “The Godfather, Part II” (1974) also pulled a “hat trick” in the category.
• Thompson on Hollywood: Anne Thompson, an unabashed “western fan,” is thrilled that Paramount has finally released a trailer for Ethan Coen and Joel Coen‘s “True Grit,” which she describes as “the 2010 movie I cannot wait to see — and the big unknown for Oscar watchers.”
• 24 Frames: Steven Zeitchik reports that Christopher Nolan, the producer of the forthcoming “Superman” reboot, has reached out to “Black Swan” helmer Darren Aronofsky about directing the film. Aronofsky’s indie films have all been celebrated but his one studio outing, “The Fountain” (2006), was a critical and commercial disappointment.
• Movie Crazy: Leonard Maltin pays tribute to the actress Gloria Stuart, who died on Monday at the age of 100. Stuart, whose film career spanned “The Invisible Man” (1933) through “Titanic” (1997), was the second oldest living Oscar nominee or winner (behind only Luise Rainer).
• Speakeasy: John Jurgensen hears that producer Graham King, who won the best picture Oscar for “The Departed” (2006) and is presently enjoying more success with “The Town,” has formed FilmDistrict, “an acquisition, distribution, production, and financing company” that plans to “aggressively” release four to eight films per year.
• Hitfix: Hitfix confirms that up-and-coming actress Maggie Grace, 27, has joined the cast of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.” Grace, who is probably best known for her work on TV’s “Lost,” will reportedly “face off against Kristen Stewart‘s Bella as a vengeful vampire who blames the Cullens for the death of her lover” in the franchise’s final installment.
• Deadline Hollywood: Nikki Finke details 20th Century Fox’s extravagant plans to mark the upcoming 45^th anniversary of “The Sound of Music” (1965), which include a theatrical re-release with a “sing-along” component on October 19 and October 26; a reunion of the cast on a special edition of “Oprah” on October 29; and the release of a new 3-disc Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack with all sorts of goodies inside on November 2.
• Risky Business: Philiana Ng passes along “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s recent prediction that “The King’s Speech” has the best picture Oscar in the bag: “New Rule: If they’re going to make a historical epic full of British actors in period costumes about Queen Elizabeth [II] helping her father get over his speech impediment, why bother having the Oscars at all? You win… Unless someone in America is making a movie where Meryl Streep teaches Anne Frank how to box, we give up.”

Photo: Javier Bardem in “Biutiful.” Credit: Roadside Attractions.

As you may have heard, Jeff Bridges and the Coen brothers (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen) have re-teamed for the first time since “The Big Lebowski” (1998) to shoot “True Grit,” a remake of the 41-year-old Henry Hathaway film that starred John Wayne late in his career. Wayne bagged an Oscar — his one and only — for his performance as Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the film, so it’s not hard to imagine that Bridges will also garner some serious attention for his take on the one-eyed lawman. In fact, a big-name director who is close to people involved with this film tells me that I should bet on Bridges winning!

There are, however, two strikes against Bridges right off the bat: (1) he just won a best actor Oscar earlier this year, and (2) he’s playing a character that someone else already won an Oscar for portraying. But, as the following stats will illustrate, these can be overcome…

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