In a performance that should be lauded throughout awards season, actress Ryan Destiny raises the bar for biopics with her latest film, “The Fire Inside.” Based on an incredible true story, Destiny portrays Claressa Shields, the only American boxer, male or female, to win two consecutive gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. The film is the directorial debut of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison with a screenplay written by Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins.
Destiny takes audiences on a harrowing journey throughout Shield’s young life in Flint, Michigan where she helped to raise her young siblings while her mother battled substance abuse. Shield’s father was incarcerated for seven years, however, his love for boxing inspired his daughter to take up the sport. Claressa’s boxing coach, Jason Crutchfield, portrayed by Academy Award Nominee Brian Tyree Henry, plays an integral role in her life, carrying the mantle of a mentor and a father figure.
With Shield’s request that the boxing in the film be as authentic as possible, Destiny vigorously trained to embody the middleweight champion and her commitment to the craft is evident on screen. In an interview with the L.A. Sentinel, Claressa Shields shares high praise for Destiny’s performance.
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“Ryan Destiny portrayed me so well with her boxing and her mannerisms. I have a documentary about my life, “T-Rex: Her Fight For Gold,” (2015) that followed me as a 17-year-old and I’m 29 now. So to see that Ryan was able to embody me as a 17-year-old, I watched the film like, ‘How did she do that?’ Her confidence, her strength, her having that no backdown attitude, she did it so well.”
Shields continued, “Ryan called me and said, ‘Claressa, I’ve been training, I’ve been boxing, I’ve been hitting the bag. I got a six-pack now!’ And she said, ‘I just want to know when you feel like you’re all broken up and sore, what do you do?’ I said, ‘Girl, you rest, you relax!’ She was so happy that I said that. Ryan trained very, very hard. She was drinking her protein shakes and eating her beef. She was really on it and I’m just so happy that all her hard work paid off. For Ryan to jump into my body and do that with the character, it’s so amazing and I’m so happy for her. Ryan deserves every nomination and every award.”
While Destiny was physically preparing to play Shields, actor Brian Tyree Henry was mentally preparing to embody coach Jason Crutchfield.
He told the Sentinel, “Luckily, we had the blueprint of the documentary so I got to really see Jason and Claressa’s interactions and how they related to one another. He has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen in my life. He didn’t do it for financial gain. He didn’t do it for notoriety. He did it because he knew Claressa was the best boxer that he had ever seen and I really wanted to explore that. Also in my relationship with Ryan, because this was our first time meeting, I knew who she was and I also knew what she was being asked to do. And it’s no small feat. Many actresses would have run the other way if they knew they had to literally step into the shoes of a two-time Olympic gold medalist and female boxer, but Ryan did not.”
Henry continued, “I wanted to explore the connection that was already provided for us hoping that it would bring Claressa and Jason back together. Because I didn’t know the last time that they had seen each other, but when they saw the film at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) you could see them go back to who they once were. They were in the corner, talking and laughing. That coach and athlete connection is so familial. So I also wanted to have that kind of access to Ryan to make sure that she felt safe and knew that I was there to be in service.”
One of the many riveting aspects of “The Fire Inside” is that it doesn’t end when Shields wins her first gold medal. Before agreeing to train for the 2016 Olympics, Shields advocated for equal pay for male and female athletes, a fight in which she was successful. While great strides have been made nearly a decade later, Shields is still working to close the pay gap in the world of boxing.
“I’m still fighting for equal pay, equal opportunities and equal fight time. I’m still fighting for the networks to give us the same amount of money for licensing as they give the men to put on their boxing matches because I’m also part promoter now and for women’s boxing matches, they’re not giving us the same licensing fee that they give the men, so we can’t make as money as much as we should.”
There aren’t many people who can say they’ve had a feature film biopic before the age of 30 while still being an active competitor in their field. “The Fire Inside” is yet another milestone for Shields but she’s far from retirement. The self-proclaimed “GWOAT” (Greatest Woman Of All Time) shares, “I have a world champion fight on February 2 that I’m looking forward to.”
“The Fire Inside” (Amazon MGM Studios) is currently in theatres.
