On Christmas Day, the world will get reintroduced to Olympic boxing champion Claressa Shields and her inspiring journey in the new film, “The Fire Inside.” And while the movie is sure to shed some new light on a somewhat hidden figure onscreen—offscreen stars Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry and Shields herself have surprises of their own.
The trio shared as much when they sat down with The Root ahead of the release of their new film in which Destiny plays Shields and Henry, her boxing coach Jason Crutchfield. In addition to having personal connections to the movie, each person shared a little known tidbit about the process of bringing this story to life—and because we don’t like to withhold good things from our readers, here’s what they told us:
Ryan Destiny’s real life imitated a pivotal scene in the film
In one of the most moving moments in the film, Shields engages in her first qualifying match for the 2012 London Olympics. But thanks to it taking place in China, her being in new territory and thousands of miles away from Crutchfield’s guidance—she has a hard time finding her footing. In an ironic twist, Destiny revealed that there was a time during filming where her real-life boxing coach couldn’t be there on set to help her navigate through the movements. This, in turn, left her feeling lost at how to move forward.
“I did have a moment with my actual coach in real-life for this film where he couldn’t actually come to set with me. And it did make me feel lost,” Destiny shared. “And it made that particular moment, the moment where Jason couldn’t go with her to China just make way more sense in my mind of how she felt in those moments. You do feel a little lost, you feel like you don’t exactly have enough of the confidence that you need to do it on your own. In that way, I felt it literally for this film.”
Brian Tyree Henry dedicated this performance (like all of them) to his mom
Henry relayed that this performance — along with all the others he’s done thus far and the ones he will do — will be in remembrance of his mother, Willow Dean Kearse, who passed in back in 2016. He explained how her voice is a constant presence in his life despite her passing and that ultimately, she’s the reason for all his accomplishments.
“She was always that person to say something in my ear, to give me that little wink, you know? To let me know that I can do it. All these accomplishments are for her and I know that they’re being moved by her. But when she was around, there wasn’t anything that I couldn’t do. So I do everything in homage to my mother, for sure,” Henry said.
Claressa Shields is still working to shrink the pay gap for woman athletes
When speaking to Shields, she detailed how after she won her first Olympic gold medal for USA Boxing in 2012—the first one in over five years which cemented her place in history as the first American woman to ever win in that category—she and other amateur athletes joined a board for the U.S. Olympic Committee to make sure the women athletes were getting paid just as much as the men.
In the time that followed, Shields lent her knowledge and expertise to ensure that the professional women boxers and athletes were knowledgeable enough on how they ought to be getting compensated for their talents.
“I try to make sure that the girls can have more information on how they can make money and tell the networks not to tell them no to a certain amount of dollars,” Shields told The Root. “You have to build your brand, you have to do so many things. I give these girls these jewels to help them because I’ve made a million dollars a time or two and three times now. So now, the goal is how do I make five million, how do I make ten?”
“I think ‘The Fire Inside’ is going to bring so much attention to women’s sports and women’s boxing and how..some of these companies may not know they’re overlooking us, but they’re overlooking us because of our sport not being looked at as a ‘womanly sport.’ They have to understand that sports has no gender and I think The Fire Inside will show that,” she concluded.
‘The Fire Inside’ is in theaters everywhere on Dec. 25.