A Bulked-Up Sydney Sweeney Helps Former Boxing Champ Christy Martin Take on Her Painful Past in ‘Christy’

For the uninitiated, Christy Martin became the face of female boxing in the ‘90s and brought the sport to mainstream attention. She was promoted by the king of boxing promoters, Don King (who promoted fights for boxing greats like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman), appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, won a welterweight title, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. She was at the top. But in those years, she also buried the pain of her personal trauma.

Now it’s all out there in the new biopic about her life, Christy (in theaters Nov. 7), which unexpectedly stars glamorous ingenue-of-the-moment Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) as the West Virginia-born boxer known as the “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” We see Martin’s brutal fights in the ring, her struggle to come out as gay in an ultra-conservative family, and the emotional rollercoaster with her misguided mother.

And then there’s the even more brutal domestic battles with former husband and manager James Martin (played in the film by a terrifying Ben Foster), who was emotionally and physically abusive, at one point shooting and repeatedly stabbing Christy in the chest. (James was convicted of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died behind bars last year.)

“I always say, I put everything in a box and try to put the lid on tight,” Martin, 57, tells AARP of the difficulty of revealing her past in Christy. “You try to keep the lid on the box. You don’t really get it out, and then all of a sudden, now you want to let the world into that box. So you have to take a lot of deep breaths and share your life with people you don’t know. And it’s scary.”

Though Sweeney might seem like a counterintuitive choice for the role, the actor throws herself fully into the brawny, powerful performance — and is getting awards attention for her work. For her part, Martin came away thoroughly impressed by Sweeney, whose involvement helped get the film made in the first place.

Christy Martin celebrates during a bout against Deidre Gogarty in 1996.

Al Bello /Allsport/Getty Images

“[It is] so much unlike what people expect from her, and she wanted to show that she has a broad range,” notes Martin, who spent a lot of time by Sweeney’s side on set. “I think it’s a challenge for her, and I think she cares about helping people, and this movie is going to help people in many different ways.”

According to Sweeney, transforming herself, in body and mind, into the former boxer was a no-brainer. “I wanted to take Christy on because she challenged me in new ways that I’ve never been challenged before,” she says. “Her story inspired me. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know who this amazing woman was, and I wanted her to be seen by the world.”

Martin had significant input in making sure what’s seen is indeed what actually happened. “I was telling [cowriter] Mirrah Foulkes, ‘Please don’t Hollywood-ize my life,’” she remembers. “And Mirrah said to me, ‘Christy, there’s enough crazy that happened in your life. We don’t have to Hollywood-ize it' ... I felt very protected by the group of people that came together to do Christy.”