{"id":176390,"date":"2025-12-09T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/176390\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:21:08","slug":"sydney-sweeney-responds-to-christy-film-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/176390\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney Responds to \u2018Christy\u2019 Film Reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWere she not Sydney Sweeney<\/a> and prone to making headlines for nearly every move she makes onscreen and off, viewers might not immediately realize it\u2019s the Euphoria actress who\u2019s portraying groundbreaking former professional boxer Christy<\/a> Salters Martin when watching the sports biopic Christy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I looked in the mirror for the first time, I was like, \u2018Whoa.\u2019 I didn\u2019t even recognize myself,\u201d says Sweeney, who gained 35 pounds, wore brown contact lenses and a variety of late-\u201980s and early-\u201990s mullet-style brunette wigs, and trained with a dialect coach to imitate the real-life athlete\u2019s thick West Virginia accent for the role. \u201cAs an actor, I dream of being able to have roles like that where I get to lose myself completely, and I was able to do that with Christy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChristy\u2019s story is a layered tale of resilience, the film beginning with her teen years as a basketball player at Mullens High School who\u2019s in a same-sex relationship with her teammate, of which her conservative parents disapprove. The boxing arena, which Christy entered in 1989 at the age of 21, proved to be equally closed-minded, leading the young talent, nicknamed \u201cthe Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter\u201d after her father\u2019s occupation, to hide her sexual identity. Just two years later, in 1991, Christy married her 47-year-old boxing coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who became increasingly controlling and physically and financially abusive as she climbed the ropes of the industry \u2014 inking a deal with famed promoter Don King, played by Chad L. Coleman in the film, and becoming the first female boxer on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Nineteen years into their marriage, Jim stabbed Christy multiple times and shot her in the torso with her own pink 9mm handgun on Nov. 23, 2010, leaving her for dead in their Apopka, Florida, home. Christy managed to survive the attack, escaping to safety by dragging her injured body outside the house while Jim showered, and flagging down a passerby who took her to a nearby hospital. Jim was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, where he died on Nov. 26, 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I first read [the script for] Christy, I actually was shocked that I had no idea who she was,\u201d Sweeney admits. \u201cI\u2019d never heard of her story before, and, automatically, I was like, \u2018OK, that means I need to make sure this happens.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tDoubling down on that resolution, she says, \u201cthere was no hesitancy at all\u201d on her part about taking on the role. \u201cBut I was definitely intimidated,\u201d Sweeney notes. \u201cI knew it was going to be an immense challenge and weight on my shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCelebrity personal trainer Grant Roberts and world champion boxing trainer Matt Baiamonte aided Sweeney in her physical transformation into the 2009 super welterweight titleholder. Combat sports weren\u2019t entirely new to Sweeney, who began kickboxing and grappling at the age of 12, and even worked with Ronda Rousey\u2019s sensei Gene LeBell. But getting into shape to face an unknown opponent and training to replicate a former champion\u2019s unique fighting style require two completely different focuses, says Sweeney.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery single fight that you see in the movie is one of Christy\u2019s real fights, so it wasn\u2019t like I was just learning boxing and we were randomly making up all these fights. We actually pulled real combinations from her specific fights and incorporated that into every fight in the movie, so I was learning how to box like Christy, her exact moves, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat effort continued throughout the two months of filming for the Black Bear Pictures project, which premiered at TIFF and made its theatrical debut in November.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSydney Sweeney, shown with Bryan Hibbard (center) and Chad L. Coleman (right), portrays female boxing champion Christy Martin in the sports biopic Christy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBlack Bear\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d wake up an hour before my call time so that I could do an hour of weight training,\u201d Sweeney explains. \u201cThen I would go film for 14 hours, and then I would usually have an hour to two hours of fight choreography, and then I would go home and try to see if I could get another hour of weight training in, and then I would ice my entire body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond embodying Christy\u2019s physical presence, Sweeney had a number of emotional touchpoints to hit as well, especially concerning Christy\u2019s fear and shame around Jim\u2019s abuse. \u201cThe scene with Merritt [Wever] when Christy was trying to ask for her mom\u2019s help was really hard,\u201d the actress confesses. \u201cIt was hard on a personal level because I have such an amazing mom who has supported me in everything that I\u2019ve done, and I felt so much for Christy and for others who might not have parents that they can turn to like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChristy was a part of the creative process for the project from the very beginning and regularly came to set and even sat in on some of the star\u2019s training sessions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was so nervous, like, \u2018Please be proud of me,\u2019 \u201d Sweeney admits. \u201c[Christy] said that she\u2019d sign me up and promote me as a fighter if I wanted to because I\u2019m actually pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe boxing pro\u2019s praise for, and defense of, Sweeney has continued post-premiere, even as the film had a lackluster showing at the box office, bringing in just $1.3 million in its opening weekend. In a mid-November post on Instagram, Christy wrote, \u201cSyd not only worked her ass off for this film, she worked her ass off for me. For my story. For so many others suffering in silence. So I want to be clear about who Syd is. She is my friend and ally!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSweeney has also garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal, receiving the Spotlight Award at the SCAD Film Festival in October.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI put a lot of love and hard work into this, so it feels good that people are recognizing that and that the story is resonating with people,\u201d says Sweeney. \u201cBut for me, I\u2019ve always said Christy\u2019s opinion is the only one that matters to me. I did this for her, and she loves it, so I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf Christy\u2019s decision to let her life unfold on the big screen, Sweeney says, \u201cShe wants her story to save lives, and she wants people to see that the strength is always in you, you just have to find it. She\u2019s faced so many challenges and adversities and people who haven\u2019t supported who she wanted to be, and seeing who she is now \u2014 she\u2019s a proud gay woman, she\u2019s married to Lisa [Holewyne, her former ring rival], she\u2019s a champion, she\u2019s the ultimate underdog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for whether the role will shift public focus from Sweeney\u2019s sexualized media image to the merits of her actual performance, the two-time Emmy nominee, with two supporting actress nods in 2022 for her roles as Cassie Howard in Euphoria and Olivia Mossbacher in The White Lotus, as well as a 2019 SAG Award nomination for best performance by an ensemble for her portrayal of Eden Spencer in The Handmaid\u2019s Tale, says she hopes so.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that I\u2019ve chosen a lot of characters that I get to explore different versions of life and lose myself to. Cassie has definitely been very culturally relevant and a huge thing, so I think that\u2019s very in the forefront of everyone\u2019s minds. But everything since then hasn\u2019t been [overtly sexual]. Eden wasn\u2019t, Reality wasn\u2019t, Americana wasn\u2019t, White Lotus wasn\u2019t,\u201d says Sweeney, who\u2019ll next be seen in the Dec.\u00a019 release The Housemaid, opposite Amanda Seyfried (who also plays the titular character in The Testament of Ann Lee). \u201cIt\u2019s just whatever people want to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Were she not Sydney Sweeney and prone to making headlines for nearly every move she makes onscreen and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1096,458,2020,146,85,46,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-176390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-christy","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-sydney-sweeney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}