CHRISTY is one of my favorite underrated movies of the year, featuring a fantastic lead performance from Sydney Sweeney in the titular role. If you go into the film not knowing much about Christy Martin’s story (like I did), you are going to be shocked by this emotional true story and the obstacles she had to overcome on her path to being the boxing legend she is seen as today. Christy changed the game for women fighters and set the stage for the large-scale title matches we see today, and I am glad that her story is finally being brought to the big screen thanks to writer/director David Michôd and writer Mirrah Foulkes.
Without getting into spoilers (and please don’t look anything up if you aren’t already aware of Christy’s story), I was shocked by the climax of the film and didn’t know what was going to happen next. So the fact I had the honor to interview Christy herself about what it was like seeing her story portrayed on the big screen is one of the highlights of my year. I asked her about her cameo in the film and what scene she was most moved by when she saw it portrayed on-screen. I also spoke to Michôd and Foulkes about their writing process, how involved they wanted Christy to be in the production of the film, and what it was like filming these intense fighting scenes. Just like in the film, Christy had her dog, Champ, with her—a fitting name for the dog of one of the greatest fighters of all time.
I have to tell you guys, I absolutely loved the film. I saw it at TIFF, I’ve been to TIFF for the past five years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever been in a screening that’s gotten such a rousing reception as Christy did. I was so moved.
Christy Martin: Thank you for the confirmation that we’ve got something special up there.
You do. Christy, as I was watching the film, I didn’t know if you were going to survive in the climactic scene of the film and I was so happy to see you did. And so then when you have your cameo in the film… at the time, I didn’t know that was you, but I just could feel that it was you. It just moved me so much to see you and to see you give the fist bump to Sydney. Can you talk about how that cameo came about?
Martin: You gave me tears. Well, how the cameo came about… people kept asking me, “You mean he’s not gonna like let you sit ringside or you’re not gonna make an appearance in this movie somewhere?” I’m like, “I don’t know. He’ll tell me if he wants me to be in it somewhere.” So last scene, last day, I mean last hours of filming, boss here says, “Get ready.”(laughing)
David Michôd: People had been going, “You gotta put Christy in the movie somewhere.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I probably should,” but I don’t know where because I didn’t want it to be a big corny moment, you know? The movie is a lot of fun but it’s also very serious and I didn’t want it to get distracted by something that felt inappropriate. I, on the last day, just thought, “Oh, this is the perfect spot to do it.” Put Christy in an event staff jacket. And just get her to fist bump Sydney as she walks past. I did not give Christy a line of dialogue. She made it up herself. And it’s just great.
Martin: Oh wait, maybe I should invoice somebody for that. (laughs)
Mirrah Foulkes: You need screenwriting credit.
Christy, how did you know what you wanted to say? Did it just come about on the day?
Martin: I don’t know. It was just natural.
It was such a heartwarming part of the film and I’m excited for people to see that.
Michôd: You know what was amazing? I mean, we could do an entire interview about Christy’s cameo…… after we shot that cameo and we were walking back to the ring where the set base was, she had to walk back through. Our hundreds of extras that we had there… those people went bananas. I wasn’t expecting it. I’m guessing you weren’t or maybe you were…
Martin: I thought you set it up. Even until like right now, I thought…no he must have set it up.
Michôd: No, I started crying when I was watching it.
Martin: But it was really cool, I think I did too because I’m walking out with Sydney and then like, I don’t know if they’re cheering for me or they’re cheering for her, but I think- I felt like they were cheering for me… but maybe they were cheering for Sydney. And it was… a lot of the extras were stopping me and saying, “I’m from so and so in West Virginia. I’m from this place.” Or, “I was one of your students at Vance.” You know, they were telling me how I was like connected to them or they were connected to me. So it was pretty awesome.
Foulkes: And bearing in mind that it was, like, 2:00 AM and absolutely freezing cold. And they’d been standing there for hours and hours and the energy just kind of lifted in that moment and it was amazing.
That’s so beautiful. I love that. Like I said, I could talk about just that scene alone.
Michôd: It could be called “Anatomy of a Cameo.”
That would be a great YouTube clip. So for you David and Mirrah, I love the different moments in the script that you picked out of Christy’s life. With a biopic like this, that spans such a long time period, how did you decide which events in Christy’s life to focus on?
Foulkes: It was tricky because there was a lot of stuff and we knew it couldn’t all be in there. We knew it was really important to see a very young Christy, a kind of young adult, late teen/young adult Christy figuring out that she couldn’t authentically be who she was in her hometown and figuring out her pathway into boxing. So we knew we needed to start there. And we knew that the film had to include the kind of darkest moments that then led to Christy’s sort of rebirth. So we always knew that it was going to span quite a long period of time. And then we had to be really selective about what fights we included, what we didn’t include. It was tough and the first draft of the script came out really, really long. It was a lot longer than the shooting script. And then we’re like, “Okay, we’ve got too much.” Whole sequences got pulled out. And the film is better for it, but great fights or great moments in history that Christy was there and a part of, they’re not in the movie. So it was actually… a lot of it was a process of editing stuff out rather than adding stuff in.
And Christy, how involved were you in the writing process?
Martin: We talked lots of hours. From Australia to… I was in Texas. And so with the time difference, we talked at crazy times. And then Mirrah came and hung out with us for about a week in Florida. And we took her to fights. It was Florida Boxing Hall of Fame weekend, I think. And so she got to meet Jesse Robinson. And then just different people that have been a part of my life, my boxing life… and then go behind the scenes. Tony fought, one of my fighters fought. So we got to go behind the scenes and see what happens as you’re getting ready to go into the ring and things like that.
Foulkes: Yeah, that trip was so great. It was the first time I’d been to a fight. I hadn’t started writing yet. I was just collating all the research and then we drove around to a bunch of places that were significant to Christy. Places where she lived or boxed. It was a really important trip.
That’s really cool. And was that helpful for you in the filmmaking process… to have Christy as a resource and to go to these places that she went to?
Michôd: We knew that any kind of immersion that we could do would be helpful. There was, for budgetary reasons early on, a certain push for us to try and find a way to shoot the movie in Australia and Mirrah and I were adamant that that couldn’t happen. I think movies can benefit sometimes when having an outsider’s eye. But you still need to imbue everything under that with authenticity, and that meant shooting it in America, shooting it in the South, having a crew of people who know what they’re looking at. For me it was about just getting in that world as soon as possible, setting up camp, and hanging out. And that’s why I love making movies. For a couple of years of your life you just immerse yourself into something surprising.
I think that really comes through in the movie, it feels like it was shot in my own small hometown. Christy, I really like that one of the themes in the movie is also shows you pushing back in interviews on being a female fighter, and rightfully so. I want you to just be a fighter, without it being gendered. At the time, you refused the title, but as a viewer I’m thinking how much of a legend you are for women in the sport. I wanted you to take on that title and know how much you have helped younger women rise through the ranks. Now, years later, have you felt more comfortable taking on that title knowing what your legacy has done for women in the industry?
Martin: It’s twofold. So, during that time, I just wanted to be a fighter. But also pushing back on promoting women’s boxing was definitely Jim Martin making sure that I pushed back… that I wasn’t promoting women’s boxing. Now, I get to be the true me and the further I get from my career, the more I realize how important that fight with Deirdre Gogarty was in 1996. And I do realize, I mean, Don King gave me a wonderful opportunity. I’ve always said that, but I understand it more and more and it gets bigger and bigger the further I get away from my career because I see these girls are now making million dollar paydays. They’re getting huge exposure. Yeah, Jake Paul’s doing some great stuff, but if Don King hadn’t done it with me in the ’90s, would Jake Paul be doing it today? So, where would women’s boxing really be? We don’t know. So I kinda, yeah, I see it. I think- I think I was important. Not going say I was important, but I think I was important.
Okay good! You WERE important. And I think that really comes through in the film. I appreciate that theme being included in the film because it’s important for everyone, including women, to see your legacy. You were so much more than being a woman fighter. Still, the fact that you were a woman fighter was huge for us, so thank you for everything you did.
