Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, an American trans man played in the film by Hilary Swank, who adopts a male identity and attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska but falls victim to a brutal hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, and Alicia Goranson. After reading about the case while in college, Peirce conducted extensive research for a screenplay, which she worked on for almost five years. Peirce was inspired by All She Wanted, a 1996 book about the killing written by Aphrodite Jones; however, she chose to focus the story of the film on the re