Professional boxer Christy Martin has stepped into the ring to defend actress Sydney Sweeney after the young star faced widespread criticism for her portrayal of the sporting legend in a new biographical film.
Boxing Legend Throws Support Behind Actress
The 57-year-old trailblazing fighter took to Instagram on Wednesday to voice her strong support for Sweeney, who has been widely blamed for the financial failure of the biopic at the box office. Christy Martin wrote passionately about their relationship, stating: "I've always been a fighter. My life reflected that in every way and now I fight for others."
Martin continued with unwavering support for the 27-year-old actress: "The past few days I have seen some people attack my friend Sydney Sweeney. Syd not only worked her a** off for this film, she worked her a** off for me. For my story. For so many others suffering in silence. So I want to be clear about who Syd is. She is my friend and ally!"
Controversy Surrounds Casting and Performance
The defence comes after Orange is the New Black alum Ruby Rose strongly objected to Sweeney's casting earlier this week. The Australian actress, 39, claimed that lesbians like herself had boycotted the cinema in protest of Sweeney's involvement.
Rose expressed her disappointment on Threads, mentioning that she was originally attached to play a role that appears to have been cut from the final film: "The original Christy Martin script was incredible. Life changing. I was attached to play Cherry. Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay."
The criticism escalated as Rose directly targeted Sweeney: "For her PR to talk about it flopping and saying [Sydney Sweeney] did it for the 'people.' None of 'the people' want to see someone who hates them, parading around pretending to be us. You're a cretin and you ruined the film. Period. Christy deserved better."
Political Allegations and Box Office Reality
This marks the first time Sweeney has faced homophobia accusations relating to her political affiliations as a registered Republican. The controversy extends beyond the biopic, with Sweeney remaining unapologetic about her controversial American Eagle campaign, which some critics accused of promoting Nazi-like eugenics as aspirational.
When questioned by GQ about condemning white supremacy last week, Sweeney responded: "When I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear. I know at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, so it didn't affect me one way or the other."
The financial performance of the biopic has been undeniably poor. David Michôd's $15 million-budget film achieved one of the worst box office openings in history for films released in at least 2,000 theatres, earning only $1.6 million total according to Box Office Mojo.
Despite the commercial failure, Sweeney had invested significantly in the project, both as executive producer and by physically transforming for the role. The actress gained 30 pounds of muscle to authentically portray the boxing champion.
Sweeney expressed her pride in the project on Monday: "I am so deeply proud of this movie. Proud of the film David made. Proud of the story we told. Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. This experience has been one of the greatest honors of my life."
The 135-minute sports drama, which hits UK theatres on November 28, also features Ben Foster, Katy O'Brian, Merritt Wever, and Ethan Embry. While critics gave the film a 65% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 156 reviews, audiences responded much more positively with a 97% score.
This box office disappointment continues a challenging period for Sweeney, who has seen several recent films underperform commercially. Her August releases - $9 million-budget Americana earning only $500,000 and $55 million-budget Eden making just $2.5 million - similarly struggled at the box office.
The actress will next appear in Lionsgate's The Housemaid, where she will executive produce and star as ex-con Millie Calloway, scheduled for US release on December 19.
