Sydney Sweeney Amy Sussman/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Were she not Sydney Sweeney and prone to making headlines for nearly every move she makes onscreen and off, viewers might not immediately realize it's the Euphoria actress who's portraying groundbreaking former professional boxer Christy Salters Martin when watching the sports biopic Christy. "When I looked in the mirror for the first time, I was like, 'Whoa.' I didn't even recognize myself," says Sweeney, who gained 35 pounds, wore brown contact lenses and a variety of late-'80s and early-'90s mullet-style brunette wigs, and trained with a dialect coach to imitate the real-life athlete's thick West Virginia accent for the role. "As an actor, I dream of being able to have roles like that where I get to lose myself completely, and I was able to do that with Christy." Related Stories Movies THR Animation Roundtable: Inside the Craft, Chaos and "Nerd Love" Behind This Year's Top Contenders Movies Oscar-Contending Docs on the Front Lines in the Middle East Christy's story is a layered tale of resilience, the film beginning with her teen years as a basketball player at Mullens High School who's in a same-sex relationship with her teammate, of which her conservative parents disapprove. The boxing arena, which Christy entered in 1989 at the age of 21, proved to be equally closed-minded, leading the young talent, nicknamed "the Coal Miner's Daughter" after her father's occupation, to hide her sexual identity. Just two years later, in 1991, Christy married her 47-year-old boxing coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who became increasingly controlling and physically and financially abusive as she climbed the ropes of the industry - inking a deal with famed promoter Don King, played by Chad L. Coleman in the film, and becoming the first female boxer on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Nineteen years into their marriage, Jim stabbed Christy multiple times and shot her in the torso with her own pink 9mm handgun on Nov. 23, 2010, leaving her for dead in their Apopka, Florida, home. Christy managed to survive the attack, escaping to safety by dragging her injured body outside the house while Jim showered, and flagging down a passerby who took her to a nearby hospital. Jim was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, where he died on Nov. 26, 2024. "When I first read [the script for] Christy, I actually was shocked that I had no idea who she was," Sweeney admits. "I'd never heard of her story before, and, automatically, I was like, 'OK, that means I need to make sure this happens.' " Doubling down on that resolution, she says, "there was no hesitancy at all" on her part about taking on the role. "But I was definitely intimidated," Sweeney notes. "I knew it was going to be an immense challenge and weight on my shoulders." Celebrity personal trainer Grant Roberts and world champion boxing trainer Matt Baiamonte aided Sweeney in her physical transformation into the 2009 super welterweight titleholder. Combat sports weren't entirely new to Sweeney, who began kickboxing and grappling at the age of 12, and even worked with Ronda Rousey's sensei Gene LeBell. But getting into shape to face an unknown opponent and training to replicate a former champion's unique fighting style require two completely different focuses, says Sweeney. "Every single fight that you see in the movie is one of Christy's real fights, so it wasn't like I was just learning boxing and we were randomly making up all these fights. We actually pulled real combinations from her specific fights and incorporated that into every fight in the movie, so I was learning how to box like Christy, her exact moves, everything." That effort continued throughout the two months of filming for the Black Bear Pictures project, which premiered at TIFF and made its theatrical debut in November. Sydney Sweeney, shown with Bryan Hibbard (center) and Chad L. Coleman (right), portrays female boxing champion Christy Martin in the sports biopic Christy. Black Bear/Courtesy Everett Collection "I'd wake up an hour before my call time so that I could do an hour of weight training," Sweeney explains. "Then I would go film for 14 hours, and then I would usually have an hour to two hours of fight choreography, and then I would go home and try to see if I could get another hour of weight training in, and then I would ice my entire body." Beyond embodying Christy's physical presence, Sweeney had a number of emotional touchpoints to hit as well, especially concerning Christy's fear and shame around Jim's abuse. "The scene with Merritt [Wever] when Christy was trying to ask for her mom's help was really hard," the actress confesses. "It was hard on a personal level because I have such a