The name Claressa Shields should be a lot more recognizable than it is to most of us. Ryan Destiny is helping to make that happen.
Destiny stars as Shields – an American professional boxer, and the first American boxer to win consecutive gold medals at the Olympics – in the new film “The Fire Inside,” directed by Rachel Morrison with a screenplay from Barry Jenkins. The film follows Shields as a teenager in Flint, MI training with her coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) for the 2012 Summer Olympics – the first of the two that she would go onto win.
Don’t think of that as a spoiler – it’s only half the story. “The Fire Inside” plays out as a pretty standard sports biopic for the first half its runtime. But after Shields wins, the film dares to do what few sports movies have done in the past. “The Fire Inside” reckons with not only the reality of being a female athlete in male-dominated sport, but the truth that what comes after victory is not always so picture perfect as the movies make it seem.
I recently spoke with Destiny about preparing to take on this role and the making of the “The Fire Inside.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a huge Olympics head – always have been – but even I didn’t really remember the name Claressa Shields. What was your knowledge of her before you signed onto this project?
Ryan Destiny: I think it was the same. I didn’t know much at all, but I wasn’t [laughs] into sports, really, in general. I was really artsy, just literally always about singing, acting, whatever. So it was definitely not something that was on the forefront – looking at the Olympics. But it was crazy, because I’m from Detroit, so to not have this be a thing and blow up even within our city, is insane to me.
Did you have any reservations about taking on the role, or telling this important of a story?
Destiny: Not really! I think I knew how special it was, you know – obviously, I mean, when you go on for the audition, you don’t know if you’re gonna get it. [Laughs] I think I didn’t understand fully that I had this chance of actually booking the role. But I knew once I did get it that I was going to have to completely strip down, you know? And be extremely raw and vulnerable in it. It excited me – I really loved that aspect of it – and it scared me, and I think that was something that was good. It was a really good, good challenge to take on.
It’s definitely different from other roles you’ve done before. Obviously, you’ve been doing this since you were pretty young, but was it scary stepping into a lead role, in a larger way than you’ve ever done before? This movie is pretty much on your shoulders, for the most part.
Destiny: Yeah, I did feel a bit of pressure because of that. I think, you know, maybe I feel it a little bit even more now, [laughs] just because now it actually has to do good in the theaters, and you know …
People are starting to see it.
Destiny: Yeah, all that stuff. I think that initially, I knew how I kind of wanted to present myself around set and going into the entire process, and making sure that I was taking all of the things that I had learned from other lead actors that I had worked with, and [thinking about] what I wanted to take from them that I really appreciated about them. So I think it was definitely nerve wracking, but I also think I was ready, in a sense, you know? To do something like this. I also was just hyper focused on the work itself, and I think that helped.
Is there anyone specifically you’ve worked with before that you can think of where you were like, oh, that’s how I want to be on set?
Destiny: I think Queen Latifah is a really, really great leader. She walks in a room without having to do much, and just commands this respect from everyone in the room, and it’s something that I have admired since I met her. She literally does not have to do too much, while also being very goofy on set at the same time, and having fun with people, talking to any and everyone, and making sure everyone feels connected on some level to her. That’s someone that I really, really appreciate, for sure.
I wanted to talk about the actual boxing just a little bit. I just started boxing about a year ago.
Destiny: Did you?
Yes, and it’s like, no joke, training-wise.
Destiny: It’s no joke. [Laughs] It’s no joke at all!
How was that training process? I read that you reached out to Michael B. Jordan’s trainer?
Destiny: That is so funny, because that is so taken out of context.
Really?
Destiny: I’ve had to completely correct people [laughs] … I literally said, verbatim, that he reached out to Rachel [Morrison], our director. They just twisted it. [Jordan] and Rachel obviously have a relationship, with her being the cinematographer for “Fruitvale [Station] and “Black Panther.” So, once he found out that she was doing this project, he suggested Rob Sale, who trained him during “Creed.” He thought no one else was better for the job, and he was absolutely correct. He’s such an amazing trainer, and we have grown so close.
It’s just crazy to think about [laughs] me being so close with this – 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 – which was something that I also could connect with in the film, with Claressa and her coach’s dynamic, and how you can feel really lost without them, in a sense. You really need their guidance a lot of the time, so when you can’t have that, it’s a very scary feeling. That was something that I actually experienced, and I didn’t expect that.
Michael [B. Jordan] also has been very supportive since the beginning. I really, really appreciate him, because obviously he’s done really iconic boxing movies at this point. So to be able to get his love and support is really cool.
How long was the training process?
Destiny: So the first go around that we did before the pandemic was, I want to say, about three, four months? And then the second time we went back around – I cheated a little bit and started early, before the studio knew. [Laughs] So that got me about five, six months of training. It was really cool, because I had to be in boxing training and weight training at the same time for that round. I say it was cool, but it was …
It’s really intense.
Destiny: It was so painful! I hated it [laughs]. I hated it for a good chunk of time, for sure!
Your body is just so sore, all the time.
Destiny: Yeah! And to get the urge to get up out of bed and go was like, so challenging for me [laughs].
Speaking of your coach in the film, played by Brian Tyree Henry, I think that relationship really makes the film. My question here is sort of two-pronged – you’re both playing real people, so I wanted to know if your process of getting ready for the role differs in any way than it would be if it were a made-up character? Also, how did you work with Henry to forge that bond?
Destiny: I know for me, there were obviously a lot of things that I had to get right, with it being about Claressa, and making sure that I understood her dynamics, all the relationships that she had with her family, with Jason, with her siblings and her mom – those were really important for me to understand. On top of her mannerisms, her speech, or how she would walk, how she would move in school with her friends. All of that was really important for me to grasp.
I think with someone like Brian, he is such a natural at everything that he does. It really came instant with us, as far as our chemistry goes, and we didn’t really have to force anything. I don’t even think we had a bunch of time to prep any of the scenes that we did together, just because he went straight from filming “Atlanta” into this. So we used what we naturally had, our friendship that was growing as we were filming and going along. He really elevates every person around him. So it was like a dream. He’s so easy.
“The Fire Inside” will be in theaters this Christmas, Dec. 25.
