Halle took full advantage of the warm LA weather in her white-hot sundress while shopping yesterday. Looking at how glamorous she is now, you'd never guess that she was once so broke she was forced to live in a homeless shelter. In the April issue of Reader's Digest she talks all about the difficult road to success and the tough love from her mother that helped to get her there. Here are highlights:

"When I moved to Chicago, [my mother] drove me there, but I don't think she ever thought it would pan out. After a month or two, I ran out of money and called her. I said, Mom, I hate to ask you this, but could you send me some money? I just have rent money; I can't eat this week. And she said no. She said, "I'm not going to start this calling home asking Mom for money. No, figure it out or come home." I was so mad. I didn't speak to her for a year and a half."

"But I'm actually grateful she did that, because it taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint, or living within my means, which were meager."

"But a girl had to do what a girl had to do. You can do that when you're 21 and ambitious and your eyes are this big and you don't want to go home," she tells the mag. "I became a person who knows that I will always make my own way."

First Jennifer Garner and now Halle? Sounds like opening up about your days as a struggling actress is the thing to do! Obviously Halle's determination (and probably something to do with those good looks) is part of what has kept her in the game and won her an Oscar. We bet that gorgeous supermodel boyfriend isn't such a bad part of success, either.

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