Christy Martin, the real-life former boxer whose career was the subject of recent biopic, Christy, has come out in defence of the movie's star, Sydney Sweeney.
Christy took in just $1.3 million over the course of its opening weekend in North America. Even though Sweeney's performance has been widely praised, some seem to feel that her involvement was detrimental to the project.
“I’ve always been a fighter. My life reflected that in every way and now I fight for others,” Martin wrote on Instagram. “The past few days I have seen some people attack my friend Sydney Sweeney. Syd not only worked her ass off for this film, she worked her ass 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!”
"Some people" almost certainly refers to Batwoman and Orange is the New Black actress Ruby Rose, who slammed Sweeney in a widely-circulated social media post this week.
Rose revealed that she was attached to play a character named Cherry (possibly a take on Jess Gabor's Rosie) in an earlier version of the project, and had some harsh words for Sweeney and her PR team.
“The original Christy Martin script was incredible. Life changing. I was attached to play Cherry," Rose posted on Threads. "Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay. It’s part of why I stayed in acting. Losing roles happens all the time. For her PR to talk about it flopping and saying SS 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.”
Though we can't know for certain, Rose's perception that Sweeney hates gay people seems to have stemmed from the Madame Web star's "controversial" American Eagle jeans advertisement, which some viewed as promoting white supremacy. Sweeney refused to get drawn into a conversation about the criticism during a recent interview, resulting in even more backlash.
Sweeney herself has yet to respond to Rose's outburst (there's a very good chance she will be asked about it the next time she's interviewed), but she did recently release a statement about Christy's disappointing BO.
“We don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact. And Christy has been the most impactful project of my life. This film stands for survival, courage, and hope. Through our campaigns, we’ve helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. We all signed on to this film with the belief that Christy’s story could save lives. Thank you to everyone who saw, felt, and believed and will believe in this story for years to come. If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded.”