Ryan Destiny had spent three months preparing to portray Claressa Shields, the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, for the biopic The Fire Inside.
The film was set to feature a screenplay by Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, and an Oscar-nominated cinematographer, Rachel Morrison, making her directorial debut.
However, after just two days of filming in March 2020, production was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Universal Pictures eventually decided to cancel the movie.
When Destiny learned of the studio’s decision, she was devastated.
“I was so heartbroken because I know how rare an opportunity like this is,” said Destiny, 29, who previously appeared in the TV series Star and Grown-ish. “And I just felt like, ‘Of course this will happen when I finally get in the door a little bit with a role that is so vulnerable and raw and real and will touch people.’”
Nearly four years after the project was dropped, The Fire Inside, now distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, is set to be released in theaters on Christmas. It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, which is often a key event for generating buzz ahead of awards season.
“I just knew we would find a way, I wasn’t going to let it go,” Morrison said. “In my head, I was like, ‘OK, this is undeniable.’”
The film is inspired by T-Rex, a 2015 documentary about Shields. It tells the story of Shields’ youth, including her time living with her boxing coach due to a strained relationship with her mother.
At just 17, she won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Despite facing a lack of endorsements, Shields went on to win a second gold medal in 2016 and has since become a multiple-division champion in professional boxing.
“When you watch the film, you realize how incredible this woman’s story is, and you wonder, ‘Why aren’t I more familiar with this?’” said Jenkins, who had not heard of Shields before a producer approached him to write the screenplay.
Morrison, a renowned cinematographer known for her work on Black Panther and Mudbound, was eager to transition into directing and was drawn to Jenkins’s script. Jenkins appreciated Morrison’s vision for how to blend boxing scenes with the portrayal of Shields’s personal relationships in Flint, Michigan.
To better understand the boxing world, Morrison took lessons herself and initially sought a lead actress with an athletic background. However, as the film required moments of theatrical grace, she shifted her focus.
Claressa Shields
Destiny impressed Morrison during auditions, especially in a scene featuring a heated argument between Shields and her coach, Jason Crutchfield.
“She was just that good that we had to take the leap of faith that we could get her there as a boxer,” Morrison said.
There were concerns about Destiny’s physicality, as her sports experience was limited to high school volleyball and cheerleading, and she is much smaller than Shields, who competed in the 165-pound weight division at the Olympics.
“Ryan has never been into a street fight or any type of altercation in her life,” Shields said with a laugh. Shields, now 29, kept a largely hands-off role during production but stayed in frequent contact with Morrison and Destiny through calls and texts.
Destiny trained for the boxing scenes with Robert Sale, who also prepared Michael B. Jordan for Creed. Ice Cube had initially been cast as her onscreen coach, but the project was dropped by Universal Pictures before filming could be completed.
“Everybody was panicked and they were looking for their sure bets, and anything that wasn’t a sure bet, they didn’t want to take a chance on,” Morrison explained.
The film found new life thanks to a former Amazon MGM executive, and production resumed in 2022, with Brian Tyree Henry, known for his role in Atlanta and his Oscar-nominated performance in Causeway, taking over the role of the coach.
Morrison used the additional time to hone her directing skills, working on television series such as American Crime Story and The Mandalorian. Destiny also bulked up, gaining about eight pounds of muscle as part of her training.
“Having to stuff myself essentially was new for me and pretty annoying,” Destiny said. “I also hate the taste of protein. It was just not my favorite.”
The delay also means the film will now reach audiences at a time when interest in women’s sports is growing, fueled by stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese in the WNBA and Simone Biles’s triumphant return to the Olympics.
As Shields’s story shows, however, the financial and cultural support for women’s sports was not always present.
“Women’s sports have always been fighting for equality, and I’ve been fighting for equality for a really long time,” said Shields. “I think this is the perfect time for it to come out.”
