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Sydney Sweeney is in battle mode after playing former professional boxing star Christy Martin in the harrowing new sports biopic, Christy.
In an interview with PEOPLE alongside Martin, Sweeney, 28, reflects on the profound physical and emotional impact the project left on her.
“I feel like I’ve taken a little bit of Christy’s strength,” the actress says. “I feel like I got her fire inside me and some fight inside me.”
“I got a mean left hook,” she adds with a smile. “I’m ready to pounce whenever.”
Directed by David Michôd, Christy tells the story of Martin’s rise in the boxing ring throughout the 1990s and her abusive marriage with former manager James “Jim” Martin (played by Ben Foster).
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“I was just completely shocked that I didn’t know who Christy was,” Sweeney admits of Martin, who was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020. “When I first read the script, I almost felt bad that I hadn’t heard of Christy’s story because I was like, everybody needs to know who she is.”
Sweeney adds: “She is so inspiring and her story will resonate and mean so much with so many people. I was like, I need to make sure that I’m a part of making a next generation know who she is and have her as a role model.”
To believably embody Martin, dubbed “the Coal Miner’s Daughter” in her boxing heyday due to her small-town roots in West Virginia, Sweeney famously gained 30 pounds and trained for months in the ring.
“The boxing was challenging in its own right, but it was so much fun,” Sweeney recalls of her intense preparation for the role, adding that she “came to life” during the process. “I didn’t want to leave the ring. It was a blast. We were hitting each other. There were bloody noses. I got a concussion. Christy was screaming in the corner what I should be doing next. She’s like, ‘Hit her with a left!’ I felt like I was in a real fight.”
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Martin, 57, remembers those on-set interactions, and coaching Sweeney “to twist a little more on your left hook, and get a little more power behind it.”
The former athlete says she knew Sweeney was the right person to truthfully portray her story based on an early Zoom call with the Euphoria star. “You can feel someone’s energy,” says Martin. “Either they have it or they don’t. She felt very down-to-earth to me. As big of a star as she is, she still felt grounded. She’s in this for the same reason that I want to share my story. She understood that it was going to really make a difference.”
Since wrapping the drama, the pair have been by each other’s side during the months-long press tour for the film, first premiering Christy at the Toronto International Film Festival, where they received a rousing standing ovation, and touring it to other events throughout the country.
The two maintain that their bond won’t break once the film opens in theaters on Friday, Nov. 7.
“She’s stuck with me for a while,” says Martin. Adds Sweeney: “Yeah, we’re not getting rid of each other.”
