There’s a new contender in the boxing film genre.
The Fire Inside, a biopic about two-time Olympic champion Claressa Shields, is in theaters now. Written by Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins and directed by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison, the film follows Shields from her early days as a boxer to her triumph at the 2012 Olympic games and beyond. It was important to Shields that any film about her life shouldn’t just focus on her achievements, but also the struggles and spirit of her hometown Flint, Michigan.
“Before Barry wrote the script, we met in person and talked for almost five hours. I let him speak first about what he thought my story was, and when he got done talking, I said, ‘Well, you had a few key parts, but this is what I want to tell, what I want them to understand about me,’” Shields recently told EW. “When he wrote his script a few months later and sent it to me, he got it just right. There was so much strength and resilience.”
The next step was finding an actress who could portray that strength and resilience both in and out of the ring.
Did Ryan Destiny have a boxing background before The Fire Inside?
Actress and singer/songwriter Ryan Destiny was already an accomplished performer when she landed the role of Claressa Shields in The Fire Inside thanks to prominent roles in TV series like Star and Grown-ish. So she was ready to tackle the film’s mental and emotional impact. The physical aspect of the performance was a brand new challenge for her.
“Honestly, when I first found out that it was her playing me, I was like, oh, man… I was a little worried because she’s tiny, she’s very pretty. I’m like, has she ever even been into a real street fight or anything? She really had me worried,” Shields admitted to EW. “But you could tell she worked very hard.”
Shields’s initial assessment of Destiny’s combat background wasn’t that far off. The actress later joked that saying she was starting from scratch when it came to boxing was an understatement. I knew nothing about boxing. I questioned it, like, who wants to get hit in the face constantly?” Destiny said in an interview with Global Grind.
But Destiny quickly developed a respect for the sweet science thanks, in part, to an assistant from another great onscreen boxer.
How did Michael B. Jordan help Ryan Destiny train for The Fire Inside?
Director Rachel Morrison knew Michael B. Jordan from her work as a cinematographer on Fruitvale Station and Black Panther. When he found out that she was making a boxing film, he reached out to recommend his trainer from the Creed films, Rob Sale.
“He thought no one else was better for the job, and he was absolutely correct. [Sale is] such an amazing trainer, and we have grown so close,” Destiny told Rough Draft Atlanta.
Talking to Buzzfeed, Destiny added that the actor was also a source of support and inspiration during her training. “Mike, throughout the entire process, was so supportive, and Rachel as well — they were very, very kind. He would give me advice whenever we would talk, and he’d share some uplifting words and all of these things because he knew exactly what I was going through. He had already done it twice at that point with Creed. So, he knew how brutal the training was and how tough it can be to also uphold that on set when you’re trying to juggle acting and being on the sets for 12-plus hours a day, plus having to stay fit and on top of your health. So, to have to juggle those things, I think he knew it all too well. I think he empathized with me a lot and just encouraged me. It was really, really, really nice.”
How did Ryan Destiny train to play Claressa Shields?
Destiny originally started learning to box when she was cast in 2020. The pandemic temporarily derailed those plans, but she jumped back into the ring in 2022. In order to look like a boxer, the naturally slim actress added weight training to her already demanding workout routine.
To move like a boxer, she trained exactly like a boxer with Rob Sale. “He’s like classic, textbook boxing trainer, you know? So our world’s would have never normally collided. But … he treated me like a fighter and not an actor, you know? And that was something that I appreciated and needed during that time. He pushed me really, really hard, and it was extremely intense, but we really grew also to love each other, and had a really great bond,” Destiny explained to Rough Draft Atlanta.
She also studied footage of Shields’s matches to get her specific fighting style down.
Does Ryan Destiny still box?
While she’s open to the idea of lacing up her boxing gloves again in the future, Destiny needed a break after making The Fire Inside.
“Right after they said cut, I didn’t touch those gloves for at least a year,” she confessed to Global Grind. “But I might get back into it in a different way. It’s such a great full-body workout, and without the pressure, it might even be fun now!”
