“The Fire Inside” has been years in the making.
The Rachel Morrison-directed drama (in theaters now) tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, the Flint, Mich., native who became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. Ryan Destiny stars as Shields alongside Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry as her coach, Jason Crutchfield.
“I trained in 2020, our first go-round for three to four months,” Destiny tells me during a joint interview with Henry on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast. “Then we stopped everything for two years, and I had to do it all over again for a second time. But looking back, I am actually very happy that I got more time with it, and I think I grew as a person, and I would assume and hope that I do because it was such a long process.
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“Overall, it’s been like a five-year process getting this off the ground,” she continues. “So I’m very happy looking back now at it. But it was intense. It was an intense world and very challenging for me, and in so many ways, I didn’t realize my body could do those things that it was doing.”
Henry recalls razzing Destiny when she was eating her very strict and not so flavorful training diet. “She was irritable, but I loved it because I’d go up to her eating Cheetos, being like, ‘How’s everything? How’s that brown rice?,’ because I didn’t have to train. I was like, ‘That’s the great thing about being a coach. You don’t really have to train.’”
Ryan, what did you know about boxing before you signed on for the movie?
DESTINY: I knew zero about boxing, like literal zero. It was something that I always respected, but that world is so frightening to me. I’m like, “I don’t understand how people can do this.” But here I am.
Brian, do you follow boxing at all?
HENRY: Oh, yeah. I’m an avid boxing fan. I place bets and everything.
DESTINY: Are you trolling right now because I can’t…
HENRY: No, I’m not trolling, but you already know I got a whole boxing ring that I gamble with. That’s what you do, right? No. Most importantly, I didn’t know about Claressa. That was the part that made me very upset that I didn’t know about this story, which is a big reason why I took it, because I couldn’t understand why I didn’t know about the story. And then I stood back and was like, “I do understand why I don’t know about the story.” Of course, you have this Black woman from Flint, Michigan, who went on to do something incredibly historic by winning two consecutive gold medals, and we buried it. The sports world buried it.
Ryan, let’s talk about giving voice and face and visibility to someone who I think we could all agree didn’t get what she deserved. The responsibility, the pressure of bringing that story, and not only wanting to be a successful actor, but knowing that this story hopefully was going to reach people and that they would know about her.
DESTINY: There was obviously a ton of pressure because I knew that she’s also a very vocal person, and if she didn’t love it, she would definitely let me know and say it and not be here every day with us during the press run and the screenings, all of it. I knew that I wanted her to approve, but it was also such an honor to be able to do a story like this that is so, so special. These types of projects don’t come all the time. So it was something that I knew was rare, and I knew it was a duty. It was something that I feel like, as an actor, you really long for things like this, things that mean something, because it helps the entire process overall. It helps you connect. It changes you for the better, and it helps you grow in so many different ways.
HENRY: If you sign in to do something like boxing, you have to take your licks. But also she gave as good as she got because there were moments that I’d had to spar with her and my wrists are still recovering. I’m like, “You chill out. This is take two. Breathe.” But that says a lot about the veracity that you know of Ryan, because she wanted to get it right. She wanted to make sure that her hooks and her jabs were very much replicas of Claressa’s, which she should, because if she got it wrong, then Claressa will ride up on you in the street, and you don’t want that. But I think there’s a huge amount, not just to Claressa, but to Ryan of bravery that it takes. I don’t think people understand what it takes to just climb into a ring. Climbing into a ring in and of itself is hard to do.
There’s the scene where she breaks up with her boyfriend, and when [Ryan leaves] the ring, I actually clocked it and I was like, “Wow, she left so smooth.” I would trip over it.
DESTINY: No one’s ever said that they clocked that before. I appreciate that. I was so nervous about tripping in and out, and I was like, “Wow, I really have to leave and enter these things like I’ve been doing it my whole life.” So it was things like that that were very important for me. So thank you.
HENRY: And you did it. There’s even a scene where I have to hit her across the head to get her attention back, which is real. That happened. That really happened, and I looked at her, I was like, “I’m going to have to hit you.” You know what I mean? That’s that coach-athlete connection, right? But Ryan did it seamlessly. She did it seamlessly. Take after take, day after day, hit after hit, she did it. And we applaud these men all the time when they go out here and they’re jumping rope and beating pig carcasses and stuff like that, and it’s like, “Oh, but we’ve never seen this. We have never seen a Black female stand in this position.”
Ryan, the scene where Claressa is trying to put on makeup. There’s a lot in the movie about her appearance, her messaging, her branding. How much do you find that pressure in Hollywood as a Black actress where people are telling you, “Oh, no, you should be doing this. No, you should be doing that.”
DESTINY: I resonated with it obviously for so many reasons. Having to look a certain way to feel like you’re worthy enough of opportunity is something that I’ve gone through since I was very, very young. And I think it’s different for me, too, even because with someone like Claressa who had such a confidence in who she was even at that age, that wasn’t necessarily me. And it did take more time for me to understand my worth and understand myself and know my limits and know what I need to fight for, what I need to say no to. I think overall, being a woman in this industry, you have people constantly telling you what you need to do. And then being a Black woman, it adds on to that. It’s not something that I am not familiar with, and it’s something that I think I’m finally getting a hold on at this time in my life, but it took a minute to get here. It took a minute to fully show up as myself in any space that I’m in. And I think that this story, in particular, is really, really important for girls to see, for women to see, and for Black women to see because it really reminds you of how important it is to remember your strength and who you are and how you don’t need to conform in any way to succeed and be successful and be accepted. That’s a message that is one of my favorites in this film, and I relate to it a lot.
Last question because I have to wrap it up. Brian, when are we seeing “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse”?
DESTINY: Yeah, Brian!
HENRY: In all due time. We have to conclude it. It has to be concluded. Can you imagine if we were like, “That’s it. He’s in a portal and that’s it.”
DESTINY: Is it your fault, Brian, because you’re too booked and busy? Is it because of your schedule?
HENRY: First of all, that’s loaded. And yes, the answer is yes. No, look, it takes time, but we got to make you wait a little bit. You know what I mean? But it’s coming. It’s coming. There’s not going to be a dry eye in the house. I’ll tell you that. Good luck. It’s not going to wrap up in a nice little bow what things do.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
You can listen to the full conversation with Destiny and Henry on “Just for Variety” above or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
