STRAIGHT TALK: ADVICE FROM MINNIE DRIVER

Minnie Driver: Don't expect others to make things happen, says the actress. "If there's not a part for you, create your own. Don't be defined by a guy," Driver says. "Feel good about yourself. Go read a book."

TEENAGE GIRLS often approach actress Minnie Driver and gush about her breakthrough role in the 1995 movie Circle of Friends. They tell her they identify with her character, a chubby frump who wins the heart of hunk Chris O'Donnell. "They'll say, 'I felt like an ugly duckling and you gave me hope. I really feel Dave will ask me out now.' "

Driver, 26, resists rolling her eyes at each encounter. Her advice for would-be swans? "It's best not to hold your breath. Guys are extraordinarily unreliable. Just because the heavy girl gets the guy in a movie, don't feel like now the head of the football team will ask you out. Life doesn't work like that. Feel good about yourself anyway, not because 'Dave' wants to date you. Don't be defined by some [jerk] with a neck three sizes too big for his shirt. Go read a book!"

The svelte Driver gained 20 pounds for Circle of Friends. She has since worked her way onto young Hollywood's "A list" with roles in Sleepers, GoldenEye and Grosse Pointe Blank. Her latest films are Good Will Hunting (already getting Oscar buzz), co-starring Matt Damon and Robin Williams, and the January thriller Hard Rain. On the horizon: Disney's animated Tarzan (she'll provide the voice of Jane).

The actress says she succeeded by not depending on others -- whether boyfriends or bosses -- to make her life happen. Cast as a mere tree in a sixth-grade play, she ended up playing a fairy. Did the original fairy get sick? "No, I created the part for myself. If there's not a part for you, create your own."

As for rejection, don't assume it has anything to do with you, Driver says. A director once dumped her from a project without explanation. Two years later, she says, he admitted, "I'd just split up with my wife, and you look identical to her. I couldn't deal with it."

Driver can feel secure in Hollywood: "I don't look like too many people's ex-wives. There are a lot of blonds in this town."

-Jeffrey Zaslow for USA Weekend