'The Fire Inside' chronicles boxer Claressa Shields' journey to Olympic gold and beyond

Transcript

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William Brangham: Claressa Shields is one of the biggest names in women’s boxing, and her fame will likely grow wider now that she’s the subject of a new biographical film.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has the story from Los Angeles. It is part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Ryan Destiny, Actress: I’m here to pay my mom’s bill.

Actress: So you’re her, right? You’re the boxer?

Actress: She’s our golden girl.

Jeffrey Brown: The new film “The Fire Inside” tells the story of Claressa Shields played by Ryan Destiny, who grew up in Flint, Michigan, amid family trauma and economic hardship.

Brian Tyree Henry, Actor: What you think about girls boxing?

Actress: I don’t see no reason why she can’t. She got hands.

Jeffrey Brown: At age 11, working with trainer Jason Crutchfield, played by Brian Tyree Henry, who was at first hesitant to take on a young girl, she began to box her way to Olympic and world championships, a big story, for sure, but not one that ever reached the wider culture, even for sports lovers like director Rachel Morrison.

Rachel Morrison, Director: I wanted to tell the story because I didn’t know it. And it was — I couldn’t believe I didn’t know it. And I follow sports. I played sports. And so I felt like Claressa’s story, her athleticism, her resilience, it’s so inspiring. And I was kind of shocked and appalled her story isn’t as visible and her voice isn’t as amplified as it should be.

For Ryan Destiny, a self-described arts, not sports kid, taking on the role meant entering a whole new world.

Ryan Destiny, Actress: It’s so different than anything I have ever done, you know? And I knew that I would have to push myself in a way that I never had before. And that in itself was very scary, and also having to play a person who is still here, still alive.

And I knew if she didn’t love it, she could fight me.

(LAUGHTER)

Jeffrey Brown: Oh, yes, Claressa Shields could fight all right, and she would definitely win, as she has all her life, two gold medals, the first in 2012 at age 17, captured in “T-Rex,” a 2016 PBS “Independent Lens” documentary,and every professional match she’s fought, with world titles in five different weight categories. She is, she proclaims the GWOAT, boxing’s greatest woman of all time.

And how did she, now 29, feel about a dramatic feature film on her life?

Claressa Shields, Professional Boxer: I heard about it, I was like, hmm, interesting.

Jeffrey Brown: Interesting?

Claressa Shields: Yes, I said interesting, because I have this saying that my life is a movie and I’m the writer. I have seen the movie seven times now.

Jeffrey Brown: Oh, yes?

Claressa Shields: Every time I see it, I cry just the same. I cry throughout the movie. I cry happy tears, sad tears. I think about my upbringing and how hard it was when I was a kid and we didn’t have food to eat. And I just find myself being very grateful now because all the things that I have, everything I have been able to do, all of my hardships and my traumas, I have been able to turn my pain into power.

Jeffrey Brown: How to bring out that inner drive in a film that also had to feature plenty of boxing action?

Ryan Destiny: That was a very big obstacle for me. I look at Claressa as a superhuman. She is somebody that I don’t think a lot of people can relate to in the way that her self-confidence is just like no other.

Jeffrey Brown: Yes.

Ryan Destiny: So I was like, how…

Jeffrey Brown: But it comes from a deep pain.

Ryan Destiny: It comes from a very deep, deep place.

Jeffrey Brown: This is the directorial debut for Rachel Morrison, best known until now for her work as a leading cinematographer in such films as “Black Panther” and “Mudbound,” for which she became the first woman nominated for an Oscar in that category.

How does she capture “The Fire Inside” on film?

Rachel Morrison: We’re always with Claressa. And it feels internal. From a visual perspective, it was really prioritizing, like, the humanity of it and the internal experience of a 16-, 17-year-old girl who’s, like, going through all of these things.

Jeffrey Brown: This is the cinematographer in you, right? I mean, it’s frame…

Rachel Morrison: Oh, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

Jeffrey Brown: But framing the face and framing the emotional life?

Rachel Morrison: Yes, yes. I mean, I think it’s also — it’s the storyteller in me, right, who just really wants to build empathy through the work. And that’s not by being objective. It’s about by being subjective.

Ryan Destiny: All these other people getting these endorsements and sponsorships. Meanwhile, I can barely pay my mama rent.

Jeffrey Brown: What makes this story different from any sports film, says Morrison, is its twist on success. Shields wins her first Olympics, but, in some real sense, she also loses, as none of the attention or financial gain she hoped for follows.

Shields puts it this way:

Claressa Shields: You know, you think that every Olympic gold medalist, you win a gold medal, you get all this money and endorsements. And I got nothing but my gold medal. And to win the Olympics and then not get any endorsements, any sponsorships, any magazine covers, cereal boxes, it was very hurtful.

It was discouraging, but also too, it was like, you know how something makes you mad, and you would be like, you know what, I’m about to prove a lot of people wrong.

Jeffrey Brown: Wrong gender, wrong color, wrong background, wrong sport. Shields felt and overcame it all, helping usher in a new era of women in sports.

For Rachel Morrison, this was another way into the film.

Rachel Morrison: As a female cinematographer, which at I think at its high, we have maybe hit like 6 percent of studio films, like, have female cinematographers, like, it’s still low.

I’m very used to being the exception to the rule and also having it not be enough just to make good work, that there’s always — these people want to throw various perceptions and how do you carry yourself? How do you dress? How do you work with your crew? Can you carry a heavy camera, things that are — of course.

Jeffrey Brown: So, you found it personal and…

Rachel Morrison: So, yes, I did find it personal, and I think the sad reality is, it’s probably applicable to a lot of different crafts, sports,jobs, everything.

Ryan Destiny: Can’t nobody beat me.

Jeffrey Brown: It happens there’s also a different kind of personal aspect for Ryan Destiny, who’s the same age and growing up in Detroit from the same area as Shields.

Ryan Destiny: I think that that was definitely a very easy connection there, and I wanted to make sure we got certain things right, because when people are watching it that are from our hometown, they will definitely call it out if it’s not something that felt very genuine.

Jeffrey Brown: Claressa Shields says things have improved for women in boxing from when she first considered going pro. She’s earned million-dollar paychecks for several fights.

Claressa Shields: We haven’t made it to the equal pay yet.

Jeffrey Brown: Right.

Claressa Shields: But we are way further than what we were.

Jeffrey Brown: And she’s still very much in the arena.

Claressa Shields: Even though I have a biopic coming out Christmas Day, I am very much not retired, OK?

Jeffrey Brown: The story’s not done, right?

Claressa Shields: No, the story’s not done.

Jeffrey Brown: Yes. Yes.

Claressa Shields: So, we will probably have “The Fire Inside 2.”

(LAUGHTER)

Jeffrey Brown: Claressa Shields’ next fight is February 2 in her hometown of Flint. For now, the one and only “The Fire Inside” movie is in theaters.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown in Los Angeles.