‘The Fire Inside’ interview: Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry understand the excitement of a boxing movie
The release of Amazon MGM Studios’ highly-anticipated sports drama The Fire Inside is right around the corner. And according to co-stars Brian Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny, it’ll subvert your expectations of what a boxing movie can be while still maintaining the sports genres’ unique charm.
I don’t think there’s anything quite as unifying as a good sports movie. Take the Rocky saga, for one, or ’90s feel-good flicks like A League of Their Own. To this day, the genre occupies a strange place in cinema history, with these films (mostly) committing to either an unserious, coming-of-age aesthetic or, similar to last year’s The Iron Claw, maxing out their R-ratings with a grounded family drama that will 100% rip your heart out. For all that people expect sports films to be formulaic by now, I’m constantly surprised by how much nuance these movies can have—and The Fire Inside is no exception.
Brian Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny tease a different kind of boxing movie with The Fire Inside
As Awards Season approaches, there’s a hot new contender on the docket: director Rachel Morrison’s The Fire Inside. Based on the true story of Michigan boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (Destiny), the movie follows the future Olympian’s early days as a rookie boxer through her relationship with her coach, Jason Crutchfield (Henry). And according to its leads, audiences should prepare to see a very different kind of sports movie that still maintains a real sense of authenticity in regards to Shields’ story.
Speaking with The Mary Sue, Destiny opened up about exploring the “highs and lows” of Shields’ career without ending on the stereotypical “big victory” for The Fire Inside. Still, although the biopic might be somewhat of a deviation from your average sports film, Destiny promised that it’ll keep the fan-favorite elements of any good boxing movie—i.e., training montages, epic fight scenes, and lots of gritty character-building moments.
“It was exciting to have this structure of a film, especially a boxing film in particular, because you don’t normally see it play out that way. We just knew it was really, really special to be able to show the highs and lows of everything and not end on this big victory, but also just have the special moments that everyone loves in a boxing film, whether it be the training sequence or the actual fights themselves, just keeping it really exciting but staying true to what it was. Naturally, [Shields’] story is very exciting in and of itself and super inspiring, so I don’t think we had to reach too far off from what it actually was.”
From the sound of it, The Fire Inside will have all the classic “Keep me in, coach!” and “You can do it!” moments you’d expect from a sports film. But given that Shields isn’t your typical athlete, it only makes sense that The Fire Inside won’t be your typical story, and we might see her lose more than win here. After all, we’re talking about the woman who went on to win the gold medal for boxing at the 2012 Olympic games, despite the odds being very much stacked against her.
For those looking for an inspiring watch this holiday season, The Fire Inside hits theaters this Wednesday, December 25.
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