AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Some film roles are a lot more demanding than others.
RYAN DESTINY: After all the training and, you know, having different moments where I would have to spar or work with the stunt crew. I did get hit. I got hit in the face a few times.
RASCOE: Ryan Destiny plays the role of real-life boxer Claressa Shields in the new film "The Fire Inside." It tells the story of how Shields overcame poverty and neglect with help from her coach, played by Brian Tyree Henry.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FIRE INSIDE")
BRIAN TYREE HENRY: (As Jason Crutchfield) You a survivor, Ressa. You got this fire inside of you. I want you to take all that pain and turn it into something good.
RASCOE: Shields didn't just turn her pain into something good. She turned it into something extraordinary. When she was 17, she qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, giving herself a shot at sporting glory. It's a remarkable story and one that actor Ryan Destiny took on both mentally and physically. She says it was challenging playing a real person whose life is very different from her own.
DESTINY: Since this is my first time doing that, I definitely feel like it's a little bit more difficult. But there are some advantages to it as well, you know? Being able to study a person and understand the ins and outs of them is something that is a tool. But we are around the same age. So I definitely, I think, connected with her, just me being from Detroit, Michigan, and her being from Flint. But thank God, she loved it 'cause that...
RASCOE: Yeah.
DESTINY: ...That would have been bad if she didn't.
RASCOE: That would have been bad. She's a fighter. Like, that's the whole thing.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: That's what the whole movie is about.
DESTINY: She definitely would have rolled up on me.
RASCOE: Claressa is from Flint, Michigan, as you mentioned, and obviously, a lot of people now know Flint because of the water crisis a decade ago. But you could easily say that that was another character in the movie.
DESTINY: For sure.
RASCOE: What do you think of the role that that city played in shaping Claressa?
DESTINY: Oh, man. It was vital, I feel like. She says it all the time. Flint is a place of resilience, and they have such powerful people there that obviously have had to overcome a lot, and it's completely separate even from the water crisis itself. There's so much heart there. And I think that growing up in a place like that is something that builds character and builds a lot of the strength within you, and I think that's exactly what happened to Claressa.
RASCOE: This isn't really a spoiler, but Claressa goes on to win a gold medal in women's boxing at the 2012 Olympics. And what I find so interesting about this movie is that it doesn't end there. Really, a lot of the movie is about Claressa's journey after the win.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FIRE INSIDE")
DESTINY: (As Claressa Shields) I won that gold medal by being me. And now to get endorsements, [expletive] y'all saying, I got to be somebody else?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I know that you're disappointed. So are we. You deserve so much more recognition.
DESTINY: (As Claressa Shields) No, I don't deserve it. I earned it. All right? I earned that gold medal. It's a big difference.
HENRY: (As Jason Crutchfield) She just wound up right now, y'all.
DESTINY: (As Claressa Shields) Just keeping it real. What?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) What is it, Claressa? Is it the money? Is it the recognition?
DESTINY: (As Claressa Shields) Money is recognition.
RASCOE: She didn't receive the recognition after accomplishing this incredible feat. Have you ever felt that way in the industry?
DESTINY: Yes. Overall, it feels like, as Black women, we always have to work twice as hard, and I've seen it in different places in my life. There has been plenty of times now where I do feel overlooked, and unfortunately, I don't think that it's something I will not have to continue to go through. Yeah, I definitely can relate to it for sure.
RASCOE: Why do you think that Claressa wasn't better known? For a lot of the listeners here, they may have never heard of her before this interview.
DESTINY: I think at least during that time, when she did accomplish those things, it says it kind of within the story, like people not thinking that you're marketable because of how you look, because of how you speak, because of how you dress and them not seeing the value in you. That's something that shouldn't matter, and it should just matter in the work that you do and what you have accomplished, especially when you make such history like she did.
She should have been blasted everywhere. But because of the certain lens that she's looked through and the certain lens that women are looked through, people aren't going to, I guess, push you as hard as they would the next person. Our country as a whole has definitely made more progress over the years of how you look at female athletes and Black female athletes and taking them as they are and not trying to shape them and change them into what you think that they should look like and sound like.
RASCOE: That's Ryan Destiny. "The Fire Inside" is out Christmas Day. Thank you so much for joining us.
DESTINY: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
